Swedish men and women doctors compared. Comparison between Swedish-trained men and women doctors for background, demographic characteristics, professional activity and motives leading to choice of medical career.

The demographic characteristics, work history, motives for taking up medicine and other features were studied in a sample of now-living Swedish doctors consisting of every fifth woman by date of birth and for every woman the man nearest to her in date of birth (943 persons). The Swedish Board of Health and Welfare supplied a large amount of the data needed; the rest were obtained from a six-page questionnaire to which 81% of the doctors replied. Analysis of these data revealed several statistically significant sex differences, including the following: The women were born to older fathers and better educated mothers. They married later, and had fewer children. They were less often engaged in in-patient somatic care and more often in in-patient psychiatric care. They were less often head doctors, less often in teaching departments and less often medical teachers; female graduates of more than 10 years' standing were less often employed in hospitals than their male counterparts. Their work output equalled 85% that of the men. More woman than men said that they were inspired to take up medicine by a sense of mission, and fewer women than men were attracted by the prospective income or the prestige attached to the profession.