Career preferences and the work–family balance in medicine: gender differences among medical specialists

Abstract

In this article career preferences of medical specialists in the Netherlands are analysed, based on a survey among the members of medical associations of ®ve specialties. Four di erent career preferences were o ered, each of which implied a possible variation in working hours. A questionnaire was sent to a random selected group of working specialists in general practice, internal medicine, anaesthesiology, ophthalmology and psychiatry. Logistic regressions were used to predict career preferences. Besides individual characteristics, work and home domain characteristics were taken into the analysis. Not surprisingly, the preference for career change in respect of working hours is higher among full-time MDs, especially women, than among part-time workers. In contradiction to what was expected, home domain characteristics did not predict a part-time preference for female, but for male MDs. One home domain characteristic, children's age, did predict the male part-time preference. Further gender di erences were found in respect of the ®t between actual and preferred working hours (A/P-®t). The majority of male MDs with a full-time preference had achieved an A/P-®t, whereas signi®cantly less female MDs achieved their preferences. It was found that hospital-bound specialists are less positive towards part-time careers than other specialists. Furthermore, the change of working hours would imply a reduction in FTE for all specialties, if all preferences were met. Especially in hospital-bound specialisms it was not con®rmed that the reduction in FTE would be low; this was found only in respect of interns. It may be concluded that individual preferences in career paths are very diverse. Personnel policy in medical specialties, especially in hospitals, will have to cope with changes in traditional vertical and age-related career paths. Flexible careers related to home domain determinants or other activities will reinforce a life cycle approach, in which the centrality of work is decreasing. #

Choosing a medical specialty – Study of Finnish doctors graduating in 1977–2006

“…On the other hand, women seem to place less emphasis than men on medicine as a highly paid and high-status profession (Neittaanmäki et al 1993). Nonetheless, young male physicians also seem to favour part-time work more than older physicians (Heiligers & Hingstman 2000).…”

Part-time medical practice: Where is it headed?

“…Recently in The Netherlands, part-time medical practice has become a favorite strategy to combine work and family duties. 5 Using data from large cross-sectional surveys of physician, we report on a culture in which part-time medical practice is uncommon and nontraditional (United States) and a medical culture in which parttime medical practice is both common and accepted (The Netherlands). These two unique datasets provide an opportunity to use physician-generated information to explore the implications of the potential increase in U.S. physicians desiring and choosing part-time careers.…”

Getting in and getting on in medical careers: how the rules of the game are gendered

“…For men, the percentage grew by a similar amount from 28 percent to 45 percent." Also, Heiligers et al (2000) found that 50 percent of their sample of male and female specialists in the Netherlands expressed a preference for part-time hours. The sense that norms will only change if both genders re-prioritize work and family was echoed by many of our interviewees.…”