Psychiatric residency training in a changing social perspective: feminisation and sex segregation
In the last decades the medical profession has known a considerable increase of women, with 60% of the present medical students and doctors being female. However, the representation of women in the various medical specialisms and in leadership positions, has lagged behind. In this paper, feminisation and sex segregation in the medical specialisms, in particular in psychiatry, are discussed. Structural implementation of a part-time residency, flexible working hours and day-care for children is propagated as a means to ensure that (women) doctors who wish to combine a medical career with care-giving tasks can do so. This may appeal to female doctors and, because of the expected shortage of residents, can help psychiatry to meet the competition with other medical specialisms.