Recently there has been a shift in the field of medicine that will alter the shape and face of health care for years to come. In the United States, women are embarking on careers in the medical field in remarkable numbers. The percentage of men and women applying for spots in medical school has been about equal for the last few years. Lately though, the number of women applying for medical school has increased dramatically.
Ever since the feminist movement occurred, the view of what women should do for a living has changed greatly. In fact, other career paths such as law and engineering are also seeing more women entering the arena than ever before. The fire lit by the feminist movement wasn’t just under women. Society as a whole has been asked to think and behave differently. Medical schools are expected to grant slots to more women. Anti-discrimination laws have also opened up many traditionally male areas of study, though enforcement of the laws often takes many years and can sometimes be spotty.
You won’t find any recent data available for a dropout rate among female medical school students. Even though in previous years there were more women who dropped out than men, these women didn’t drop out for academic reasons. Women who are currently in the medical field assume the dropout rate is probably equal these days among men and women because their numbers have went from being a minority to being a much larger minority than they were. Because of more women going into the medical field, a lot of the old traditions that were discriminatory have been put to rest.
A prime example? There is the professor who opened his class by telling a joke. He felt like it was friendly to tell a little icebreaker. The joke was – which of these three things doesn’t belong; woman, sex, an egg, or a rug, and he answered “Sex, because you can’t beat sex.” Even though this joke is quite tame compared to some of the things these women hear on an everyday basis, it doesn’t help the thought along that women are equal to men. These practices and jokes may come to an end soon as the women begin to stand up and show that they are capable of doing it.
The ladies aren’t only dealing with crude humor by men, there are also other things that make no sense like the case of the student who wasn’t allowed to participate in a physical examination of a male patient because he would be naked and she would be able to see his genitals. But in another room not far away, the woman’s husband was allowed to perform an exam on a woman. There was also the issue of the admissions interview where a woman was always asked about her career outlook, as well as her outlook on marriage and having a family, while these questions were never asked of men. Additional problems include the fact that there are very few women serving on the faculties and admission committees for the medical schools, as well as the typical belief that women are less likely to practice once they graduate, which has prevented many women from entering specialized fields, especially surgical areas.
One of the most common questions in an admission interview was about whether a woman would choose marriage or career, and there is denial as to whether this particular question led to being denied access to medical school. They believe that some male interviewers will use the woman’s answer against her regardless of her response. For example, if a student states that if she did have children she would have someone care for them while she was working, the interviewer would suggest that she just stay home and have babies. If she says she’s going to raise her children, the interviewer will argue that the candidate doesn’t have the necessary commitment.
In more and more interview sessions, it became obvious that the perception is that female physicians are not as objective as male physicians. Once in a while, this perception has been exposed as just another stereotype. A woman who was in her second year of medical school indicated that she had witnessed a number of ruthless females and a few emotionally-charged males, however the reverse was usually accepted as a component of the ways in which men and women differ.
One dean at a prominent medical school commented that women actually bring much to table in the field and that traits that are seen more in women are in fact positive and make them good doctors. Females are often raised to be expressive and emotional, both of which can end up being an advantage for a physician in a medical practice. Males tend to be more aggressive which is a trait that can work against them in medicine. But, she states that neither characteristic is a given in either gender.
