We now have two children, a toddler and an infant. I have been reading recently about how women manage career and home. For instance this article really confronts the issue by asking Should Woman even be Doctors… http://parenting.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/06/13/should-women-be-doctors/?hpw My take on this is… that sure woman can be doctors. They can even have a family at the same time. Of course most woman who have kids and want to keep going in their career will need some help with childcare. And there may be some specialties that are so demanding that it is hard to keep up with skills if working only 20 hours or so a week. However, I think with many types of practice this is not an issue. And docs call “part-time” a job with “only” 40 hours a week. I believe that many people, men and woman, could stand for a family/work balance that was limited to 40 hours/week. Certainly their children (if they have them) would likely benefit.
This would mean however that there needs to be more docs to cover the rest of the time… I don’t think this is necessarily a bad idea. There are plenty of good solid American students who want to be docs. The medical school just need to accept and graduate more of these citizens. That is, of course, easier said then done. Which is then another topic.
