DETERMINANTS OF CAREER CHOICES AMONG WOMEN AND MEN MEDICAL-STUDENTS AND INTERNS

Women continue to be poorly represented in medical specialties other t han general practice. A cross-sectional design was used to explore the development of career plans as medical training progressed; men and w omen students were compared in their first (n = 316), final (n = 295) and intern (n = 292) years. Women at each stage of training were signi ficantly more likely to choose general practice as the field in which they were most likely to practise. There was little evidence that thes e differences were influenced by experience during training: women wer e as likely to choose general practice in first year as in the intern year. The most important determinant of career choice appeared to be t he flexibility of training and of practice of medicine: variables such as the opportunity for part-time training, flexible working hours and part-time practice were important determinants of career choice and w ere of more importance to women than to men. The study also found high rates of discrimination or harassment reported by women medical stude nts and interns. The results indicate the need for continued debate ab out these issues within medicine and the development of more flexible styles of medical training and practice.