the blog of procrastination: 07/01/2005

male versus female MD: it has to be said...

i am officially a magnet for controversy in conversation regarding the roles of males and females society. i often find myself defending myself over not being a chauvanist, but i'm beginning to feel as if it's because i express myself very aggressively, and not because i'm actually a chauvanist.

the reason i say i'm a magnet for controversy is because strangely i have discussed males and females in the work place at two separate interviews. at my science outreach interview, we somehow managed to get into the topic of male counselors vs. female counselors. i pretty much said straight up during the interview "i think that in general, women are better with children", a point i will continue to say is true. usually this means they are better liked by the children in a camp setting, and often, better camp counselors. but obviously this is not always the case, there are great male camp counselors too. i remember that during a drunken night at the bar one night (several months after the interview, when i already got the job and had been working), paul, the only male interviewing me, said that he was slightly offended by my comment during my interview. he said that there are many great male camp counselors (himself and me included he said), a point that i will definately acknowledge. but i still believe that many females have a special skill for children that i will never hope to have. does this mean that during an interview, the interviews should make an honest attempt to hire MORE females than males? of course not, this is of course, discrimination. but in the end, if you play the odds, everything else being equal (which is never the case), you're probably better off picking a female counselor.

now finally on to my topic.

strangely enough, the topic of male and female doctors was brought up during my med school interview too. as i said, i'm a magnet. the question was asked to me by the surgeon who was doing my interview. he asked about the dynamics of males and females in medicine, considering the fact that i was from a male dominated undergraduate degree: engineering.

there is a rising number of females entering medical school. calgary has a 65% female to 35% ratio and the numbers are similar, if not more dramatically skewed towards females, at mcmaster. at most other universities, it's pretty close to 50-50, but still slightly more geared towards females. many people think this is a reflection of the fact that there are simply more females than males in universities. period, end of story, but it's not as simple as that.

another reason for this may be the fact that males mature later than females. there are more females in universities not because i think males are dumber, but because they are just not as responsible as females that early in life (we're talking about 16-18, when we're applying to university). in fact, even after 1st or 2nd year university, many males still haven't gotten around to recognizing how important school is to your future (especially if you want to be a physician!). and although i'll admit it's never too late to fulfill a dream like going to med school, if you bomb 1st and 2nd year, your chances are severely hampered.

so basically, i'm just stating some reasons why there are more females than males in med school: 1) there are more girls in university 2)because they are more mature in high school 3) hence there are more applicants.

but who makes the better doctors once they graduate from med school? the statistics say that females spend (on average) longer with their patients. however as a result, females see a lot fewer patients. also, females also tend to work less hours than their male counterparts. they take more time off in a career (maternity leave, early retirement due to menopause etc...).

wow, it's not looking to great for female doctors. BUT, i'm sure if you ask females whether or not they would like to see a female or male doctor, i'm sure something like 90% would say they prefer to see a female doctor. some may argue that females are likely to make less mistakes in diagnosis (because they spend more time), but this point is unsubstantiated. in the end, with such a doctor crunch in ontario, you have to find a balance between quality and quantity.

now males, they are the brute and brash doctors (or so the stereotype says) that see 1 patient every 7 minutes. they work longer hours, see more patients and work more during their career. but perhaps, the quality of care isn't quite there because they spend so much time rushing through their patients? (again, we'll never quite know)

so here's my view on the whole thing. i BELIEVE in the stereotypes. most stereotypes are true. is it a stereotype that black people are taller than asian people? yes, but it's true. i'm sure there's a statistic that easily proves this.

similarly, i do believe that male doctors see more patients, work longer hours and work more during their career. and in a country that needs doctors so badly, you could argue that if every doctor in canada was a male, then we wouldn't have such a desperate need for doctors. they say that you need 2 female doctors for every 1 male doctor, in terms of how many patients they see. and if you talk to ethel about her paediatric clinic, she'd agree with me.

but i also believe that females are better at being certain types of doctors. paediatrics, OB/GYN are the obvious choices. and then there are those specialities that i believe to be 'neutral', radiology, opthamology, dermatology etc... on the other hand, i also think that there are specialities that males are better at. the long hours and long waiting lists makes surgery an obvious choice. a not so obvious choice is family medicine (simply because we need more of them!).

seeing as probably half of a med school class ends up being family doctors, i do believe there needs to be more male doctors. do i think that med school should try to a select one med school student over another because they are a guy? no! just like my counselor example, it should based on their credentials. but also like i said for my counselr example, all things being equal (which they never are), we need to admit more males into med school. plain and simple.

i believe males and females have different strengths and weaknesses in society. and instead of trying to equalize them, we should be trying to embrace them. trying to make them work within the structure of our society. but we should never put limits on what a male or a female can do based on gender because you'll always get tons of exceptions to the rule. yao ming is tall and he is asian. yvonne is female and is a ridiculously hard working surgeon.

i guess i'm just trying to bring enlightenment to the issue. we need more doctors in canada, and we need more males going into medical school if this situation is going to get better (the stats say so). so if i don't support admitting more males based on their gender (which i don't support...), what do i suggest?

i suggest we start pushing the boys in our society to succeed too! there is so much talk about making girls go into professions dominated by guys, so much talk about the fact that girls are just as good in math and science as boys, that the boys are lost in the mix. there needs to be less "girl specific" encouragement (even women specific scholarships are promoting this) in academia, and more encouragement in academia among kids in general.

stay in school kids! (even the boys)

posted by Ivan @ 2:30 AM

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