Female doctors not to blame for shortage
The Daily News (Nanaimo)
March 25, 2008

With women flocking to medical school in record numbers, chances are your future doctor will be a woman.

But out of the shifting demographic, new challenges arise.

Women -- who make up almost 60% of medical students in Canada and nearly 70% in Quebec -- are attracted to fields such as family medicine, psychiatry and obstetrics/gynecology and steer clear of surgery.

Female doctors tend to work fewer hours, according to a 2002 Canadian Medical Association survey.

Women spend 48 hours a week on the job, compared to 56 hours for their male counterparts.

The survey also shows that the average female doctor spends 41 hours on child care and 13 hours on household chores each week while male doctors spend just 15 hours on child care and eight hours per week on household tasks….

"We are currently reaping what was sown by our policy-makers more than a decade ago."….