Women doctors make up the majority

FOR the first time, women make up the majority of students in US medical schools.

This year, 46878 medical school students (50.5%) were women and 45 855 (49.4%) were men, according to a new report from the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC).

The enrolment proportion has been shifting in women’s favour in recent years. From 2009 to 2019, for instance, the number of men in medical schools increased by 5 465, while the number of women increased by 9899.

Male doctors still outnumber female doctors, 64% to 36%, according to 2019 data from the Kaiser Family Foundation. But that may be changing, according to a report.

Its survey of 18 000 physicians at 3 500 practices found that, in 2017, 80% of doctors 65 and older were men, but 60% of doctors younger than 35 were women. The disparity between male and female doctors appears to extend to their chosen field of specialisation.

A joint report from the American Medical Association and AAMC has found that male doctors dominate orthopaedic surgery (85%), neurological surgery (82%) and interventional radiology (81%), and female doctors dominate obstetrics and gynaecology (83%), allergy and immunology (74%) and paediatrics (72%). Specialties with a nearly equal balance of male and female doctors are sleep medicine, preventive medicine, pathology and psychiatry.

Overall, medical schools this year experienced about a 1% increase in applicants and in new enrollees, which the AAMC says contributes to an enrollment growth of 33% since 2002. Still, it notes, the country faces a projected shortage of 122 000 doctors by 2032.