Medicine as a Family Friendly Profession

The @nytimes just published an article titled “How Medicine became the Stealth Family Friendly Profession” and it is so interesting and thought provoking! Thank you @simply_jia for pointing it out to me.

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The article’s main point is that in #medicine, more and more women (usually the main caregiver for children) can create a part time profession in order to strike a better work life balance. More jobs are changing to shift work (ER and hospitalist, for ex) and for many large corporations you can choose to work 60-80% of the time for that proportionate amount of pay. Of course, this is highly specialty dependent, as specialties with more emergencies demand more time on call (surgical subspecialties for ex). But because of that reason, women are choosing to go into fields with more controllable hours that allow for part time work. Allergy and immunology, dermatology, and pediatrics have the highest percentage of women.

This is something that has been on my mind a lot lately as we are planning life around our little one coming in November. Right now I’m working 5 days a week, but after the baby comes, I can consider the option of working less. I feel really lucky that this is even an option for me; in most jobs you cannot simply cut down to 2-4 days a week without taking a disproportionate pay cut. I asked many of you in an IG poll how many days a week you work; 99% of respondents said 4 or less!

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In the future, I also foresee telemedicine allowing for even more flexibility in the medical workplace. Fields like radiology and dermatology, ones that are super visual, can be triaged and done from home.

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Two things that still jumped out at me from the article: women are still paid 82% of what men are (even controlling for hours worked), and when a field becomes female dominated, its pay and prestige drops. This is ridiculous and we should continue to fight for equal pay, equal work, equal respect.

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I’d love to hear what you think about medicine becoming a flexible field for women. This may not be true for private practice doctors, where you only earn money based on how much you work. Did work life balance and lifestyle affect your decision to choose your specialty? How many days a week do you work and is that going to change?