White males under-represented in medicine?

Image by Waldo Jaquith

If you are interested in medical careers, I recommend this opinion piece by Noel Plumridge in Health Service Journal, exploring the changing landscape of gender and ethnic background across the medical profession. Here are just a few of the facts and figures.

The headline grabbing under-representation of white males refers to the figures that they make up:

40 per cent of all school leavers, but only 27 per cent of medical school acceptances in 2007

Though it looks like this is mainly due to a fall in applications from white males.

Women now form the majority of training intake, yet it is interesting to see how the gender balance changes across the specialities:

49% of public health doctors are female
44% of pediatricians are female
29% of anaesthetists are female
8% of surgeons are female

A striking variation which Noel ascribes mainly to women tending to choose specialities which allow part-time, flexible and planned hours, and which feature more patient interaction.

If that gets you wondering why, see Noel’s article!

“Recession is putting more men than women out of work” reports People Management

Often the focus of events and schemes posted here relate to helping women break into areas where they are under-represented, however that’s not to say that men don’t face gender-related issues too. People Management have reported that the recession has caused more of an increase in the male unemployment rate – with a 50% rise as compared to 33% rise in female unemployment. This has led to the headline-grabbing prediction that 1 in 10 men will be unemployed by 2010 if trends continue, with the current rates showing:

At 9 per cent, the male unemployment rate is significantly higher than the female rate of 6.9 per cent

Worryingly, they note that the worst affected are:

Young males aged 18-24 and black men are the demographic groups most likely to be unemployed, the statistics revealed, with one in five of both groups out of work.

Perhaps this male-female imbalance is due to the recession affecting some sectors worse than others, with the worst affected areas being the ones which tend to be more male-dominated. As The Guardian has recently reported, the service sector is showing recovery, with hospitality in particular showing strength – an area that is more female-friendly. And as the People Management article suggested, the female unemployment rate may rise if cuts in public sector budgets lead to staff cuts.  So maybe this story is revealing another reason for pursuing a more even gender balance across career paths and sector  – so that when the economic strengths of the country shift, the balance of men and women in employment remains the same.

Or do you have an alternative theory?