Women doctors now in the majority across the UK
For the first time in the UK, women doctors outnumber men. The General Medical Council’s register of doctors with a licence to practise has now reached over 50% women. This is a huge milestone. 150 years ago, women were not permitted to go to medical school. Now, only 20% of licenced registered doctors are white men.
Professor Scarlett McNally, President of the Medical Women’s Federation, said: “This is a huge change. It should be celebrated. But everyone needs to adapt. We have this large excellent skilled workforce that has not been valued. The population’s health is increasingly complex. One-third of adults have multiple co-morbidities and one-fifth of the population is over 65. We need doctors to balance risks, undertake shared decision making with patients, perform interventions and lead teams. Sadly, a BMA survey showed 91% of women doctors experience sexism, meaning they are treated differently because they are a woman. There also is a gender pay gap. We need the public and all NHS staff to value each doctor for their knowledge, skills and experience, irrespective of what they look like. Diverse teams work better. MWF has a new poster campaign for patients and staff, requesting everyone not to tell the doctor she is pretty, but to discuss treatment options. We need to respect and value the excellent doctors that we already have - to improve the nation’s health.
Women doctors often have additional hurdles. The years of postgraduate training as a resident doctor, including exams and commuting, often coincide with pregnancy, breastfeeding and early-years parenting. The NHS and training organisations should increase the number, quality, flexibility, support and funding of these training posts, to get doctors through this bottleneck of compulsory years so they can deliver excellent service for decades as GPs, Consultants and SAS doctors. Some doctors spend up to 50% of their time on administrative work and we need doctors’ assistants or clinical scribes to free up time for ‘doctoring’ and developing skills.
In addition, all clinical leadership roles should be offered as role shares with adequate administrative and other support, to get the best leaders. Diverse teams work better, because the work and roles can be clear.
There are two concepts to acknowledge: that women in general are different from men in general, and that each individual woman should be allowed to excel and not be judged or subject to assumptions based on stereotypes. We all need to change our expectations and interactions. Some studies suggest that patients of women doctors have slightly better results."
More information at:
· BMJ article: https://www.bmj.com/content/388/bmj.r419
· MWF poster campaign https://medicalwomensfederation.org.uk/our-work/things-not-to-say-to-women-doctors
· The Medical Women’s Federation call for changes to improve careers for women doctors: https://www.medicalwomensfederation.org.uk/images/MWF_suggestions_on_sexism_and_parenting_7.7.23_FINAL.pdf
· The BMA report showing that sexism is very common, experienced by 91% of women doctors. https://www.bma.org.uk/advice-and-support/equality-and-diversity-guidance/gender-equality-in-medicine/sexism-in-medicine-report
