Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2008 Sep;54(9):1285-1286.e5.

Women in medicine: the challenge of finding balance

Sophia Mobilos  1 , Melissa Chan, Judith Belle Brown
Affiliations

Women in medicine: the challenge of finding balance

Sophia Mobilos et al. Can Fam Physician. 2008 Sep.

Abstract
in English, French

Objective: To examine the experiences of women physicians with regard to the interplay between career and lifestyle choices and to discover how women's experiences have evolved during the past 3 decades.

Design: Qualitative study using a phenomenologic approach and in-depth interviews.

Setting: Southwestern Ontario.

Participants: A total of 12 women physicians.

Method: A purposeful sample of women physicians was selected using a maximum variation sampling strategy. Through semistructured interviews, participants' experiences, opinions, behaviour, and feelings were explored. All interviews were audiotaped and transcribed. The analysis strategy was both iterative and interpretive. Researchers independently reviewed and coded each transcript to identify key emerging themes, and the research team met to discuss and compare individual interpretations. Interviews continued until saturation was achieved.

Main findings: Three main challenges emerged from the women physicians' comments: lifestyle and career choices, family planning and career trajectory, and seeking balance.

Conclusion: Despite the increased number of women physicians in the work force, the experiences and challenges faced by these women have not evolved during the past 30 years. Women continue to experience the strain of their dual role as women and as physicians, discordance between career and lifestyle choices, and difficulties with timing pregnancies. Some changes in legislation have been made to benefit women physicians, but these changes have not yet influenced attitudes and behaviour in the workplace.

OBJECTIF: Examiner ce que les femmes médecins ont comme expérience des relations entre choix de carrière et de mode de vie, et découvrir comment leur opinion s’est modifiée au cours des 30 dernières années.

TYPE D’ÉTUDE: Étude qualitative par approche phénoménologique et entrevues en profondeur.

CONTEXTE: Sud-ouest de l’Ontario.

PARTICIPANTS: Un total de 12 femmes médecins.

MÉTHODE: Un échantillonnage raisonné de femmes médecins a été sélectionné grâce à une stratégie visant un maximum de variation. Des entrevues semi-structurées ont permis d’explorer les expériences, opinions, comportements et impressions des participantes. Toutes les entrevues ont été enregistrées sur ruban magnétique et transcrites. La stratégie d’analyse était à la fois itérative et interprétative. Les chercheurs ont revu et codé indépendamment chaque transcrit pour relever les thèmes clés émergeants, et l’équipe de recherche s’est réunie pour comparer les interprétations individuelles et en discuter. Les entrevues ont continué jusqu’à saturation.

PRINCIPALES OBSERVATIONS: Trois défis principaux sont ressortis des commentaires des participantes : style de vie et choix de carrière, planning familial et orientation de carrière, et recherche d’équilibre.

CONCLUSION: Malgré la proportion croissante de femmes parmi les médecins actifs, les expériences et défis auxquels ces femmes font face n’ont pas changé au cours des 30 dernières années. Les femmes continuent d’être confrontées aux exigences de leur double rôle de femmes et de médecins, aux contradictions entre carrière et style de vie choisi et à la difficulté de planifier le moment d’une grossesse. Certains changement ont été apportés à la législation pour aider les femmes médecins, mais ces changements n’ont pas encore influencé les attitudes et comportements en milieu de travail.

PubMed Disclaimer

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Kletke PR, Marder WD, Silberger AB. The growing proportion of female physicians: implications for US physician supply. Am J Public Health. 1990;80(3):300–4. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Kass RB, Souba WW, Thorndyke LE. Challenges confronting female surgical leaders: overcoming the barriers. J Surg Res. 2006;132(2):179–87. - PubMed
    1. Gautam M. Women in medicine: stresses and solutions. West J Med. 2001;174(1):37–41. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Canadian Institute for Health Information. The Southam medical database: supply, distribution and migration of Canadian physicians. 2001 update. Ottawa, ON: Canadian Institute for Health Information; 2001.
    1. Tyrrell L, Dauphinee D. Task force on physician supply in Canada. Ottawa, ON: Canadian Medical Forum Task Force; 1999. Canadian Medical Forum Task Force.

LinkOut - more resources