Women Doctors in France: A Feminization That Is Mere Window Dressing?

Abstract

Feminization of medicine in France has come about in several stages, in connection with student and medical specialists recruitment. Its dynamics show that it can’t be considered as a virtually definitive gender reversal, but should rather be viewed as a dynamic recomposition closely related to societal changes and economic situations. I explain the way women succeeded in entering medicine via the concours, and how their situation has often given rise to wrongful interpretations concerning their ‘choices’. Finally, I reflect on the complex connections between feminization and the democratization of medical recruitment, on the one hand, and with the transformations within the liberal model in medicine, on the other. I conclude that the feminization of medicine questions a wide array of social relations in the domains of family, health, economics and politics, as a complex social fact.

Citation

Hardy, A.-C. (2015), "Women Doctors in France: A Feminization That Is Mere Window Dressing?", Gender, Careers and Inequalities in Medicine and Medical Education: International Perspectives (International Perspectives on Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, Vol. 2), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 151-176. https://doi.org/10.1108/S2051-233320150000002009