Women in Pediatric Practice
GENERAL PEDIATRICS
The MD degree opens up such a breadth and depth of practice and life-style possibilities that the patterns encompassed are as varied as the individuals themselves. As recently as 1981, women constituted only 10.8% of professionally active physicians.1 Of the total number of office-based women physicians in the 1970s, 20% were in the practice of pediatrics, 14.1% in pediatric allergy, 18.9% in pediatric cardiology, and 24.9% in child psychiatry. Of the 45,540 women physicians in AMA Physician Master File as of 1978, pediatrics was the specialty with the largest percentage of women (17.4%).2 Few other statistics are available on women in pediatric practice or on the logistics of their practice, group V solo, city or rural, fee for service v prepaid, the number of hours or patients seen, income, or how many women combine practice with family. There are also no data on marriage, divorce, or number of children. We know little about women physicians' temporary periods of inactivity, the reasons for these periods, or what assistance is needed to help them back into medicine. Even if available, statistics would not tell an adequate story of job satisfaction v feelings of entrapment, the excitement of practice on a collision course with cherished home and family life, or necessary job and family modifications in the juggling of priorities and rationing of time.
Practice Location and Opportunities
Because society does not measure "success" for women in financial terms to the same extent as it does for men, a woman physician may feel freer to choose a professional style.
