A few years ago Carol Black, then president of the Royal College of Physicians, caused a media furore by saying that the growing number of women in medicine threatened the profession’s influence and status. As Iona Heath wrote in a BMJ editorial, this was portrayed as an astonishing position for a woman to adopt, with the clear implication that it was antifeminist (BMJ 2004:329:412-3; doi: 10.1136/bmj.329.7463.412). Heath concluded that Black’s concerns were valid because of the continuing unequal status of women in society.

The proportion of women entering medicine continues to grow, and the concerns that seemed unacceptable then, especially when expressed by a woman, continue …