Women physicians: facts, fantasies, and prospects

The increasing numbers of women physicians will affect the practicing physician both directly and indirectly. Women physician practitioners have more female patients, spend more time with each patient, and perform more pap smears than their male counterparts. Although the data are sparse, few other differences have been found in the practices of male and female physicians. Because women physicians choose different specialties and are less productive in traditional terms than men, their increasing numbers will affect the perceived balances and imbalances in the specialties, thus shifting the competition among physicians. Women physicians are also more likely to choose organized practice settings where they are salaried. This paper explores the available data and speculates on the long-term implications of more women in the medical profession.