Women in hospital medicine.

The proportion of women in the UK medical workforce is rising steadily. While this is good news for sexual equality, and is welcomed by patients who wish to have the choice of a woman doctor, it has implications for workforce planning. Women are much more likely than men to wish to train and work part-time in order to accommodate the demands of producing and caring for a family. Specialties that attract a preponderance of women need to plan for lower rates of participation by their workforce, both during and after training. Specialties traditionally attracting a preponderance of men need to consider the shrinking size of their recruitment pool as the absolute number of male graduates falls. A working party of the Federation of Royal Colleges of Physicians (Edinburgh, Glasgow and London) has produced a report Women in Hospital Medicine1, which considers the impact of women in the medical specialties and compares their aspirations and achievements with those of men. The working party reviewed the literature on the role of women in medicine and heard evidence from experts in the field; women doctors currently in training; women who had achieved academic success; and associate postgraduate deans with responsibility for flexible training. While the focus was on hospital medical specialties in the UK, they also considered the experience of women in other specialties and other countries. The resulting report presents evidence that the increasing proportion of women in medicine has profound implications for the future staffing of the NHS, at least equivalent in impact to the changes brought about over the last 10 years by the reduction of junior doctors hours. It found that women tend to shun the acute medical specialties; tend not to apply for senior academic jobs; are not well represented in the senior management and administrative positions; and are underrepresented in the top distinction awards. While not advocating positive discrimination, the report offers recommendations to retain and maximise the contribution of women in hospital medicine.