The Ladies are Leaving.
A friend shared an interesting article with me. It’s called Sex Differences in Physician Attrition from Clinical Practice Across Specialties: A Nationwide, Longitudinal Analysis.
The graph caught my eye. It looked similar to the physician/administrator graph.
This however, is something very different, yet equally alarming.
The article studied attrition of 700k+ physicians over a decade of practice.
The authors found the following:
Women are more likely to leave medicine at every age, across all specialties and practice
locations. They leave medical practice years earlier than their male counterparts.
The ladies are leaving.
DAMN. That is NOT GOOD NEWS.
The reasons for this are numerous.
We all know the common life events that contribute:
Childbearing, family demands, caretaking of elderly parents.
But don’t under-estimate the medical system’s contributions:
Unequal pay, work more hours for less pay, unpaid work hours from home, the emotional toll of
medicine, work-life imbalance, burnout, the list goes on & on.
We can’t let this trend continue. Medicine needs women physicians.
But what can we do? How do we keep female doctors practicing longer?
Oh, I know. I know. Invite them to be a part of DIRECT CARE.
Direct primary care. Direct pediatric care. Direct speciality care.
Keep them practicing!
They would find more flexibility, fair pay, a better work-life balance & the even a renewed sense
of purpose.
Ladies, please don’t leave!
Medicine needs you.
We were sold a lie by the feminists. We cannot have it all, but you are correct that it is easier when a woman owns her practice and has control over her schedule. Since my practice has grown, I am able to take more time to be with my family. Of course, my oldest is 20 and youngest is 17, so I feel like I waited too long. Please women, get out of the system now. If I can do it, anyone can.
Young women, do not delay having kids. They are the greatest joy of my life.
“Medicine needs women physicians.”
Why? Why do we specifically need women physicians?
We need physicians, yes, but does it really matter if they are men or women? And, to be frank, if we follow your argument consistently, we should actually want more male physicians than female physicians, since men tend to work longer hours and retire later in life. In addition, women tend to be risk-averse, so they tend to avoid specialties with higher risk, like neurosurgery, for example. So at some point in the future, you are going to have a scarcity of physicians in some specialties. In addition, if medicine becomes a female-dominated field, it may lose some of its prestige. Research suggests that when a profession becomes dominated by women, it often experiences a decline in both pay and social status. As a result, there may be much less money in the field in the future. Well, in the end, the majority of the country that pushes for more women physicians will be forced to hire more foreign doctors…
So I repeat the question. Why do we need women physicians?
The only reason is that, at the moment, feminism has become the dominant religion. Its dogma is that women are better than men and therefore must be placed everywhere, no matter the consequences or whether the evidence supports it. Of course, this is not science but ideology. It is a matter of faith, not of reason or evidence.
wow. just wow.
I appreciate your willingness to speak truth.
I detest identity politics. It devalues everyone. As a mom of two very white boys, married to a cop, I wish we could stop talking about inequality that does not exist. We have overcorrected to a point where it is a disadvantage to be a white Christian man.
Great article-thank you so much for your helpful validation