Lack of Women in Peds?

[Goran]

Pediatricians are in very high demand around the world. The number of people in the physician profession is 600,000. Eighty percent are male and twenty percent are female. Therefore, there is a high demand for women in this field.

Is anyone else surprised by these numbers? Maybe it makes sense because women could feel guilty about working with kids all day while they don't have enough time for their own. But I would have expected more women in peds.

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[jaylily]

That's crazy. I would have thought it would be much closer than that. Hmmmm... will this give me a better chance for a peds residency?

 

[labangel]

I also thought there'd be more women than that...would you mind posting where you got the quote from?

 

[nychick]

You are joking, right? Is this like one of those bad logic/ find the fallacy test questions that they stick on the LSAT?

Pediatricians are in very high demand around the world. The number of people in the physician profession is 600,000. Eighty percent are male and twenty percent are female. Therefore, there is a high demand for women in this field.

Reread it, because that statement in and of itself makes no sense.

While I have no idea where you lifted that quote from or what, those numbers are way off. In fact, as of 2001 the second-highest percentage of women residents in any specialty was to be found in peds (13.5% of all women residents in 2001 were in peds, and women make up 60-70% of the current peds residency pools -- data from the ABP site).

I got the data below from a report on the AAP website--sorry the tables get all wiggy when you paste them in here, so I'll try to link to it

http://www.aap.org/womenpeds/
Then, click on the Demographic fact sheet link

Anyway, this shows that of a total 813,770 physicians in the US, 63,921 were pediatricians, and of those 48% were women.

Also, if you look at the age and gender breakdowns the trend is patently obvious...

 

[notstudying]

If you read it carefully, the 80% of 600,000 refers to physicians in the world (not pediatricians only, and not just US). 600K docs in the world sounds low, but given the lack of opportunities for women in some other countries, the percentage may be closer to accurate.

 

[kenfused]

The trend is definitely heading toward more women, such as in Ob/Gyn. While there are plenty of men who are older pediatricians. Most Peds programs are probably at least 50/50 men/women, and MANY are 80%+ female!

 

[Goran]

Pediatrics

I can't locate it now, but the quote was somewhere in the about.com website on becoming a pediatrician.

notstudying, good catch. I completely missed the reference.

 

[irlandesa]

Originally posted by kenfused
The trend is definitely heading toward more women, such as in Ob/Gyn. While there are plenty of men who are older pediatricians. Most Peds programs are probably at least 50/50 men/women, and MANY are 80%+ female!

Yeah, the current group of new interns at Tufts-NEMC Floating Hospital for Children contains 12 females and 1 male! This is an interesting topic, b/c I am potentially interested in peds (also medpeds and IM) and would like to go to somewhere with more of a balance in genders. Nothing against my sex, I just would like to have a few male colleagues during residency. Does anyone know where the male:female ratio for various peds programs might be listed? thanks..

 

[doc05]

the 80/20 ratio includes all pediatricians, including those who have been practicing for many many years. so the number is accurate: most peds are men, yet on the contrary most new peds residency graduates are women. in time, the ratio will become skewed toward probably about 70:30 (F:M)

 

[HiFi]

the downside I found working with a bunch of women was maternity issues.

it really used to frost my ass when I had to pick up extra calls because so and so needed 6 weeks off for maternity leave!

wish I could have taken 6 weeks off and have my coworkers pick up the slack for me (without them being given a choice! )

 

[Tazmaniac]

One thing I noticed: there does seem to be an abundance of gravid abdomens in Childrens' Hospitals...

Well, I won't be needing maternity leave, so it should be ok for me to work with HiFi...that was a hilarious line.

-Todd MSIV USC.