Women doctors face challenges yet also find success.
Women who choose to be doctors face challenges similar and different to those of their male counterparts. The medical profession is an arduous one to enter and practice regardless of gender. However, female doctors have historically faced discrimination from a predominantly male community. Nevertheless, more than 50 percent of today's medical students are female. Twenty-five percent of practicing doctors are female, and of them, 75 percent are satisfied with their choice of career. Loves for science and helping people are essential for all doctors, male or female.
Instructions
1. Study Elizabeth Blackwell. As the first female doctor in the United States, Blackwell was inspired to become a doctor after eight of her siblings passed away. During her epoch, the early 1800s, women were not accepted as doctors. She was rejected from 16 schools yet fought hard for her education.
2. Assess your passion for medicine, science, education and hard work. At least 11 years of rigorous schooling is required to practice medicine. Entrance to medical schools is notoriously difficult and demands stringent preparation. Becoming a doctor is difficult, yet worthwhile, no matter your gender.
3. Interpret the phrase "female doctor" how you see fit. The term applies to the many women who are doctors as well those physicians that care for the female body. These doctors are known as obstetrician-gynecologists, colloquially as OB/GYNs.
4. Join organizations that support women in medicine. They include, but are not limited to, the American Medical Woman Foundation, the Association of Black Women Physicians and the Association of Women Surgeons. Many of them offer scholarships and awards to young women who would like to enter the profession.
5. Prepare to juggle work and life away from the stethoscope. Ninety percent of female physicians surveyed by MomMD Women in Medicine expressed concern over balancing the affairs of family and home life with their medical career.
6. Brace yourself for possible discrimination. In the same survey as above, a quarter of the participants claimed discrimination for their parental status, and even more cited gender discrimination.
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