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THE FEMINIZATION OF MEDICINE
The first women to practice medicine in Canada in 1867 was Emily Jennings Stowe. 150 years in the making times have sure changed. To-day women in Canada account for 41% of all medical doctors.
Women according to Stats Canada will soon be the dominant force in medicine across the country. 63% of medical students and 56% of the residents are now female.
I checked with Admission’s at the Schulic School of Medicine at the University of Western Ontario to discover some very interesting first year numbers. In 2017 there were 56 Dental students with 34 being female and the remainder 22 male. Here are the stats for the Medical School : 2483 students applied, 449 were interviewed and after the gleaning 171 Medical first year students were enrolled with 55%
male and 45% female. www.schulic.uwo.ca/docs/about/deans_office/reports. htm.
All candidates to the School of Dentistry have to do well with the (DAT) Dental Aptitude Test and have at least two years of undergraduate studies. Medical School potential students have MCAT, Medical
College Aptitude Testing with quite high scores along with outstanding grades in Biology and Chemistry or there is little or no chance at acceptance at any of Canada’s medical schools.
The questions we have to ponder: are females taking over the practice of medicine in Canada? Does it really matter? In the past men dominated the field of medical care accept for the women who did the
hard unappreciated work involved in the nursing profession.
Publicly funded universal health care has guaranteed well paid employment for doctors with no worry about securing patients. With the chronic shortage of doctors when you graduate you hang up your shingle and are guaranteed thousands of grateful patients to fill your once empty waiting room.
Women have had the daunting task to bare/care for their children and often times the familie’s daily household needs.
It has been widely assumed that female doctors work less and with the increaing female number of physicians we will have a shortage of health care providers. While female doctors take time off for maternity leave many of their husbands are now true partners in their marriage helping to rear their children.
My young friend Alex dutifully takes good care of his son Emerson in the Y pool while his wife is a Resident at the University Hospital in London. He has enjoyed his parenting role. They are now looking forward to having a new baby brother in the Spring for Alex to father/mother.
It is no coincidence that the medical specialities in which women are the most numerous are: Family Medicine, Pediatrics, Psychiatry and Geriatrics. With an ageing population we sure need doctors whose want to provide care for Alzheimer’s, Family Care including those who are at the end- of- their- life journey. These special services for the most part are not the gold standard seven figure incomes that many male doctors strive for.
So, men get used to it; times are not changing. They have changed. The next time you go for your
yearly medical and want to be checked for possible Prostate Cancer concerns your female family doctor will do due- digital- diligence necessary testing. Just shut your eyes, breath deeply and relax. Come on men your wife has gone to their male Gynaecologist for Pap smears and did not blink an eye.
My doctor, who is a female, has inherited her father’s practice. She is a great family doctor who is married. Her husband gladly took mat leave to take care of their two rambunctious little boys.
To-day I asked a middle aged man who was shopping at Foodland how his father is fairing? He laughed that: "I looked much better then his dad who has been dead for the last three years." "Smoking three packs a day washed down by copious amounts of whiskey seemed to take it’s toll". Too bad that he did not have a female doctor.
Len Lesser is an education/career counsellor in Dorchester, Ont.
Len Lesser