Influences of marital status and parental status on the professional choices of physicians about to enter practice

Abstract

The trend toward increasing numbers of working women may alter the ways both men and women physicians structure their professional lives. The 1987 graduates of residency and fellowship programs at the University of Minnesota Medical School–Minneapolis were surveyed in June 1987 about professional plans and factors that led to their decisions. The women expected that their spouses would contribute half of their family's income, whereas the men expected that they would be largely responsible for their family's income. The married women with children planned on working fewer hours than did other physicians. Family structure may play an important role in preventing the convergence of men and women physicians' personal incomes or working hours.