DEGREES EARNED IN SELECTED FIELDS OF STUDY, 1956, 1960, AND 1965

A comparison of the increase in the number of degrees earned by women at all levels and in selected health professions between 1956 and 1965, according to figures from the Office of Education, shows that almost the smallest growth has been in medical degrees. Although the number of doctoral degrees awarded to women doubled over the period, the number of degrees in medicine and osteopathy earned by women rose by only about one-third. In fact the proportionate rise in degrees earned by women was greater in nearly all the other health professions. The only exceptions were first-level degrees in public health, degrees in occupational therapy, and a decline in number of degrees awarded women as doctors of dental surgery.

Between 1956 and 1965, the number of medical degrees earned by women per year rose by 126. The comparable numerical increase per year among men was 296 or more than twice as much. Proportionately, however, the rise in the number of medical degrees earned was greater among women than among men, 35 percent as compared with 4 percent.

DEGREES EARNED IN SELECTED FIELDS OF STUDY, BY SEX 1956, 1960, AND 1965

1 A percent increase unless otherwise indicated.

2 Doctor's degrees cover only doctoral degrees in philosophy, education, engineering, etc. Doctoral degrees in the medical professions are first professional degrees.

Source: U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare, Office of Education: Earned Degrees Conferred, 1955-56 1959-60 and 1964-65.

PERSONS IN THE HEALTH OCCUPATIONS: 1966 AND 1975 ESTIMATES

In 1966, there were an estimate 2.8 million workers in the health occupations; by 1975 the total needed is expected to increase to between 3.7 and 4.0 million. This would amount to a net increase of between 100,000 and 130,000 health workers a year in the decade ending in 1975.

These projections indicate a need for between 93,000 and 128,000 additional physicians, or an increase of between 31 and 43 percent, in the next ten years. This increase in demand for physicians is at about the same rate as for all health workers.

1 Based on the 4 major regions of the United States.

2 Separate data not available; included in all other.

3 ASCP registered. Hospitals reported 22,000 employed in 1966 who were not ASCP registered. Estimated at the same rate of increase as the sum of the specified categories.

Source: Estimates prepared by the Public Health Service and the Bureau of Labor Statistics based on: "Health Resources Statistics: Health Manpower, 1965." Public Health Service Publication No. 1509.

STUDY OF PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITY OF MEN AND WOMEN PHYSICIANS

This study presents the findings regarding the professional characteristics of men and women physicians, based on a survey of medical school graduates of the years 1931 through 1956. The study was undertaken in 1965 by three cooperating agencies, the American Medical Association, the Association of American Medical Colleges, and the American Women's Medical Association, to determine current professional practice activities and trend changes. The major focus of this study was on the practice patterns of women physicians.

Questionnaires were sent to all women who had graduated from medical schools in the United States in the years 1931, 1936, 1941, 1946, 1951, 1956, and 1961, and a somewhat larger sample of men randomly drawn from a list of all men who had graduated in the same years. Both samples were drawn from records and mailing lists maintained by the American Medical Association. Information was also obtained at this time from AMA records concerning professional activity and biographic details concerning all individuals in the sample. Use of this information obviated the necessity for requesting similar information again and permitted comparisons of the characteristics of the responding group with the original sample.

Of the 4,658 questionnaires sent to both men and women, usable replies were received from 78.2 percent of the women and 76.5 percent of the men. (Table 1) After a preliminary analysis of the data, it was found that those graduating as recently as 1961 were atypical as compared with the earlier graduates, since many of the 1961 graduates were still in training at the time of the survey or had not acquired families and become established in their medical careers. The 1961 graduates were, therefore, excluded in the final data analysis. The remaining sample included 1,727 women and 2,110 men graduates of classes from 1931

through 1956. Usable responses were received from 1,336 or 77.4 percent of the women, and 1,584 or 75.1 percent of the men.

The response rate, by year of M.D. degree, shows substantially uniform coverage for both women and men. The respondents also appear to be representative of the original sample on the basis of AMA data on age, medical school, specialty, certification by American boards, source of professional income, principal employer, and nature and detail of professional medical activity.

PRACTICE CHARACTERISTICS OF PHYSICIANS

The marital status reported by 1,336 women physicians who responded to this study in 1965 shows that 63.2 percent were married, 23.4 percent were single, and the remaining 13.4 percent were either widowed, separated, or divorced. Of the 1,584 men physicians reporting in this study, 93.4 percent were married, 3.4 percent were single, and the remaining 3.2 percent were either widowed, divorced, or separated.

Data obtained in this study indicate a trend toward earlier marriage by medical students and physicians in training programs. While this trend has been apparent in the general education community, it is surprising to see that it appears so strongly in medical education which formerly was considered as a deterrent to marriage for both men and women. As shown in Table 2, 29.3 percent of the women physicians were married at the time of graduation from medical school. Dykman and Stalnaker in their earlier study reported that 15.1 percent of the women medical graduates of 1925 to 1940 in their sampling were married before or during medical school.' This nearly doubled rate of marriage for women medical students appears as a continuing trend, as shown by the rising rate of married women within the graduating classes reported by this study. The women graduates of 1931 reported that 16.8 percent were married on graduation, while the 1956 graduates reported 33.8 percent were married.

The data for men physicians surveyed (Table 3) show a comparable trend. The 38.0 percent of men who were married either before or during medical school in this study is double the 18.7 percent reported by Dykman and Stalnaker in their 1925 to 1940 study. Similarly, the rate of marriage either before or while in medical school has increased more than three-fold among men respondents in this study from 15.1 percent of married men graduates of the class of 1931 to 52.1 percent of married men graduates of the class of 1956.

Spouses' occupations, as reported by women physicians, are presented in Table 4 in categories of medicine, medically related, and not medically related professions and occupations. These data are presented in groupings by year of graduation to show changes over the years covered by this study. The majority of women physicians in this study, 56.1 percent, reported that they were married to physicians. An additional 7.1 percent of the women indicated they were married to men whose profession or occupation is related to medicine. The current data indicate the continuing trend toward women physicians marrying their male colleagues. Within each graduating class of women physicians, the incidence of marriage to physicians has steadily increased from 45.3 percent in the class of 1931 to 60.3 percent in the class of 1956.

Slightly more than 83 percent of the wives of all the men physicians in this study were not employed. (Table 5) Of the 15.5 percent of men who reported employed wives, three-fifths were married to women in professions or occupations related to medicine (7.5 percent) or to women physicians (1.6 percent). The percentage of men physicians with physician wives from 0.6 percent of graduates of the class of 1931 to 3.1 percent of those of the class of 1956.

Childbearing during the years of medical education and training is a concomitant of the previously noted trend toward earlier marriage. Tables 6 and 7 present the time of childbirth or adoption in relation to the time of parents medical education or training. Slightly more than two-thirds of the women physician respondents had given birth to or adopted children at varying times during their career. Of these women physicians with children, the smallest percentage, 5.2 percent, had children before medical school and the largest percentage, 64.4 percent, had children after completion of their education and training. (Table 6)

1 Dykman, Roscoe A., and Stalnaker. John M., "Survey of Women Physicians Graduating from Medical School 1925-1940," Journal of Medical Education, Vol. 32(3) Part II, March 1957.

Dykman and Stalnaker reported that only 3.6 percent of the women with children in their study had children before or during medical school. In the present study 11.8 percent of the women with children reported at least one child born before or during medical school. Only 5.3 percent of the 1931 women medical graduates with children reported that they had children before or during medical school, while the 1956 graduates reported that 14.9 percent had at least one of their children before or during medical school.

Of the 1931 women graduates with children, 6.7 percent reported that they had children prior to the completion of their medical education and training, while 55.3 percent of the 1956 graduates reported they had children before completion of their medical education and training. It is thus apparent that the proportions of women physicians marrying and bearing children during the years of their medical education and subsequent training have shown a rapid rate of increase and that these factors must be strongly considered in relation to the effect they have on potential professional activity of women medical graduates.

The trend toward establishment of families during the years of medical education is shown more clearly, as might be expected, by the data on men physicians. About one-fifth of the men with children reported that they had at least one child born before or during the time they were attending medical school. (Table 7) Slightly less than 4 percent of the 1931 medical school graduates had children by the time of their graduation as contrasted with 36 percent of the 1956 graduates. When the period of additional medical training (internship, residency, etc.) is included, 18.0 percent of the 1931 men graduates with children reported that they had had children prior to completion of medical education and training and contrasted with 83.4 percent of the 1956 graduates.

Table 8 indicates the number and percent of women respondents reporting the total years of training in which they engaged beyond nine years and include residencies, fellowships and such other training as preceptorships. Based on the total sample of women respondents, including those reporting no training. the women physicians in total have averaged 2.26 years of training beyond the internship.

Men averaged slightly more years of total training after internship-2.55 years. (Table 9) The reported years of training range from one to eight years. The same proportion (22 percent) of both men and women physicians reported no additional training. Twenty-three percent of the men and 34 percent of the women reported one or two years training while 55 percent of the men and 44 percent of the women reported 3 or more years training beyond internship. One-third of the women physicians in this study have been certified by the individual specialty boards as shown in Table 10. The specialty of pediatrics appears to be the favorite among certified specialists, accounting for one-third of all certifications. The preference for pediatrics is also reflected in the listing of self-declared primary interest reported to the AMA by women respondents to this study, as presented in Table 11. The medical specialty interests of women physicians, whether board certified or not, quite consistently favor pediatrics, psychiatry, internal medicine, obstetrics and gynecology, and anesthesiology. It is interesting to note, however, that women physicians are diversifying their specialty interests into areas other than the traditional "women's specialties." Of the men physicians in the study 46 percent have been certified by individual speciality boards (Table 12). Among those certified the leading specialties are internal medicine, surgery, pediatrics, and obstetrics and gynecology. This relates closely to the self-declared primary interests of men physicians as reported to the AMA by these respondents (Table 13). The leading specialty field of interest was internal medicine, followed by general surgery, obstetrics and gynecology, and pediatrics.

Tables 14 through 21 present additional information regarding the professional activity of women and men physicians as they have reported this information to the AMA. These data, though separately derived, are based on the same 1,336 women and 1,584 men physician respondents. Tables 14 and 15 detail the professional activity reported to the AMA in 1965, showing that three-fourths of the women and nine-tenths of the men physician respondents indicated their medical activity involved the direct care of patients, while 12 percent of the women and 1 percent of the men indicated they were involved in activities not related to