Attitudes towards women physicians in a Nigerian community

The extent of discrimination against female physicians by the general public has been sketchily researched upon in Nigeria. Recent programmes that were initiated to improve the lot of women and also encourage females to enter into male-dominated professions call for investigation into sex bias in medical practice. This paper examines the extent of discrimination against female physicians among the Yoruba of South Western Nigeria. Although the findings revealed that the respondents were more favourably disposed towards female physicians than was hitherto reported in earlier studies, the issue of sex bias was made obvious when the respondents were confronted with choosing physicians for specialised procedures. Certain sociocultural beliefs that could be responsible were discussed and suggestions were made on the basis of the observed findings.