The doctor's husband.

A study of 162 females, actively employed as medical practitioners, was conducted to examine perceived characteristics of their husbands and to determine whether such attributes might relate to the women's commitment to and satisfaction with medical practice. A questionnaire assessing personality characteristics of such husbands was produced by a factor analytic technique, and the final measure is tabled. Eighteen items loaded clearly on one of three factors measuring perceptions of general support by husbands, levels of type A characteristics within the husbands, and the degree to which husbands were against their wives' medical career. Factor-specific scores on those dimensions were examined against other variables, and associations were found linking scale scores with variables in the female practitioners including age, type of medical practice, hours of employment, and satisfaction with medical practice. Husbands who were medical graduates were scored higher on type A characteristics and fathered more children than the other husbands.