[Female physicians--choice of specialty and career].

The first part of the article contains a brief review of the role of women physicians in the history of medicine. The main part article presents an analysis of choice of specialty and the careers of female physicians in Norway. Data are presented from the period of the pioneers (1893-1920), and compared with data from 1950, 1960, 1971, 1982 and 1992. Men and women differ in their choice of specialties and careers. The pattern is the same in Norway as in other countries: women physicians tend to choose specialties with lesser prestige, they represent a relative minority among the academic elite, and there are few women in leading positions in medicine. The author summarizes some of the explanations that have been suggested for these phenomena.