Towards gender balance: but will women physicians have an impact on medicine?
The increasing numbers of women in medicine in western societies has raised the issue about their impact on medical practice. As a way of addressing the issue, this paper explores women's position in medicine in the Nordic countries, where the medical profession will soon be gender-balanced. Support for both a ghettoization and a vanguard argument for women physicians can be documented. The final section offers three sociological perspectives--the socialization theory, the neo-Weberian, and the social constructionist--as theoretical explanations for the gender segregation of medicine and as diagnostic paradigms and potential heuristic devices to aid women's empowerment as medical providers.
Riska
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Department of Sociology, Abo Akademi University, Finland. eriska@abo.fi
D004645:Empathy; D004651:Employment / Q000639:trends; D005260:Female; D019513:Feminism; D006301:Health Services Needs and Demand; D006280:Health Workforce; D006801:Humans; D010819:Physician's Role; D010822:Physicians, Women / Q000523:psychology / Q000600:supply & distribution; D011287:Prejudice; D011364:Professional Practice / Q000639:trends; D012537:Scandinavian and Nordic Countries; D012962:Sociology, Medical / Q000639:trends*; D013038:Specialization