Personal and practice-related characteristics of a subsample of US women dermatologists: data from the Women Physicians' Health Study

Background The number of women dermatologists has increased dramatically ov er the past few decades. Despite this, there have been few studies examinin g the personal or professional characteristics of women dermatologists prac ticing in the USA. Methods A representative random sample of active, part-time, professionally inactive, and retired US women physicians, aged 30-70 years, was studied; this article compares data from the 95 responding dermatologists with data from 4350 other respondents. Results Women dermatologists were more likely to be US born, white, and mar ried to a physician than were other women physicians; they were similar to other women physicians in age, marital status, children, amount of stress a t home, political self-characterization, and personal health behavior. Wome n dermatologists were more likely to be board certified and to practice in solo or two-person practices than were other women physicians. They had few er nights on call, were less likely to state that they worked too much, rep orted less stress at work, were more satisfied with their careers, and repo rted higher household incomes. With the decided exception of skin cancer pr evention and screening, they were unlikely to have considerable training, c onfidence, or interest in routine prevention-related screening or counselin g for patients. Conclusions Women dermatologists are unlikely to be part of a minority grou p, likely to be married to another physician, and likely to have a high hou sehold income. They report reasonable work stress and high career satisfact ion. Given these findings, it is not surprising that only 10% would conside r changing their specialty were they to relive their lives.