What Was Not Discussed: Reply to Comments

Abstract

It is now clear that women doctors will soon make up the majority of the medical workforce. Research shows that women often prefer part time and flexible working, and are inclined to favour some specialist fields over others. Although these facts are widely known, as yet it appears that little account has been taken of their economic and organisational consequences. All doctors require sound careers advice, but women doctors reported that this is often poor or inconsistent. Women's preference for flexible working at certain stages of their careers could be a major advantage in health service planning; models need to be developed that recognise women's willingness to work in new ways. Although women are under-represented in positions of national leadership, there is no evidence to suggest that they are disadvantaged in their endeavours, or unwilling to deliver the commitment necessary. However, they may need timely advice and encouragement to reach their full potential. KEY WORDS: education, training, women, workforce Five recent reports on women and medicine have highlighted the need to take a critical look at the implications of the increasing numbers of women taking up medicine, and the opportunities and choices they have once qualified. 1-5 Women doctors will soon be the majority, and whatever the factors are that determine their choices, research conducted by the Royal College of Physicians (RCP) shows that women prefer part-time and flexible working particularly in the early years following qualification 1 ; that women who always work full time have very similar career trajectories to men 6 ; that women prefer to train in some specialist fields more than in others (including general practice); and that, by and large, they feature less prominently in what the medical profession regards as 'leadership' positions-certainly in numbers lower than their representation in the medical workforce would suggest was equitable. In the context of this paper, 'leadership' denotes duties and responsibilities additional to those normally associated with consultant or principal in general practice posts. For example, officer positions in faculties and royal colleges; medical directors or chief executives in trusts and primary care trusts; senior management positions in universities and research institutions, etc. These factors will have considerable impact on the way medicine is planned and delivered for the next few decades. In November 2009, the RCP brought together the authors and researchers involved in the production of the five previously mentioned reports, 1-5 together with others with an interest in the topic to establish consensus on the key issues, and to reach conclusions on how these might be addressed. The five reports cited have all made recommendations in relation to women and their roles in the medical profession, but there remains a concern that not enough has changed, and that it is essential to take account of the increasing female share of the profession when planning the future workforce. The seminar was...

The Fukurai affair

“…Subsequent editions of the Japanese encyclopedia or dictionary of psychology usually had a ‘parapsychology’ entry but, even so, Fukurai was seldom referenced. Only in the most recent decade have Fukurai and his psychical research been referred to in papers on the history of psychology in Japan (Sato and Sato, 2005; Takasuna, 2007).…”