A survey of women graduates from a Canadian medical school

Abstract

Information was obtained from 104 of 106 surviving women medical graduates of the University of Western Ontario in a study designed to determine subsequent working careers and related factors. Of those who had graduated six or more years before this study 85% were engaged in medical work (66% full-time and 19% part-time). General practice, psychiatry and preventive medicine were the leading categories of work. Childbearing was the most important determinant of occupational status. Fewer of the women who had borne children were currently engaged in medical work than were either single or childless married women. The apparent contribution of other factors to working status arose from their correlation with child-bearing. Comparison with other studies suggests that the percentage of female graduates doing medical work is substantially higher than in Britain and about the same as in the United States.