[Is gender of significance for specialization of physicians? An analysis of specialization degree among female and male physicians].

Although there has been a substantial increase in the number of women in medicine, we still find strong gender differences in career patterns. Female physicians specialize to a lower degree than their male colleagues do, although the percentage who do so has increased in recent years. The gender difference in frequency of specialization is not an effect of female physicians' spending a longer time on specialist training. Our results indicate that female physicians, to a greater extent than their male colleagues have to choose between family and career. A larger percentage of female than of male physicians live alone, perhaps indicating that career demands a higher price for the former. However, the percentage of singles is, larger among older than among younger female physicians. We interpret this as indicating that the necessity to choose between career and family is not as strong as it used to be.