BMJ  2008;336:848 (19 April), doi:10.1136/bmj.39549.485660.3A

Letters

The woman question

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The first 100% of the full text of this article appears below.

The debate that there are "too many women" in medicine and that this in turn is bad for the profession is indeed disheartening.1

Many women in the NHS have successfully balanced family life against long, often unsociable hours.1 No one seems to complain that a mostly female workforce is bad for nursing.

British society burdens women with the combined pressure of employment and family life. Despite the gains made by the feminist movement, men are allowed only a fraction of the parental leave allocated to women after the birth of a child, sending the message that raising an infant is clearly a woman’s responsibility and for no valid, logical reason. The problem is not that there are too many women, but that women are faced with archaic burdens that need to be shared.

Sacha C Haworth, FY1 surgery

1 Inverclyde Royal Hospital, Greenock PA16 0XN

Sacha.Haworth@rah.scot.nhs.uk

Competing interests: None declared.

  1. Dacre J. Are there too many female medical graduates? No. BMJ 2008;336:749. (5 April.)[Free Full Text]

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Relevant Article

Are there too many female medical graduates? No
Jane Dacre
BMJ 2008 336: 749. [Extract] [Full Text] [PDF]

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