Personal and practice-related characteristics of a subsample of US women dermatologists: data from the Women Physicians' Health Study

Abstract

Background: The number of women dermatologists has increased dramatically over the past few decades. Despite this, there have been few studies examining the personal or professional characteristics of women dermatologists practicing in the USA.

Methods: A representative random sample of active, part-time, professionally inactive, and retired US women physicians, aged 30-70 years, was studied; this article compares data from the 95 responding dermatologists with data from 4350 other respondents.

Results: Women dermatologists were more likely to be US born, white, and married to a physician than were other women physicians; they were similar to other women physicians in age, marital status, children, amount of stress at home, political self-characterization, and personal health behavior. Women dermatologists were more likely to be board certified and to practice in solo or two-person practices than were other women physicians. They had fewer nights on call, were less likely to state that they worked too much, reported less stress at work, were more satisfied with their careers, and reported higher household incomes. With the decided exception of skin cancer prevention and screening, they were unlikely to have considerable training, confidence, or interest in routine prevention-related screening or counseling for patients.

Conclusions: Women dermatologists are unlikely to be part of a minority group, likely to be married to another physician, and likely to have a high household income. They report reasonable work stress and high career satisfaction. Given these findings, it is not surprising that only 10% would consider changing their specialty were they to relive their lives.