Career and life experiences of New Zealand women medical graduates

Aims. To investigate the career and life experiences of a cohort of women graduating from a New Zealand medical school. Methods. A questionnaire was mailed to 415 women who had graduated from the University of Auckland between 1973 and 1997. Results. The response rate was 74%. Compared with a study undertaken in 1986, more women are entering clinical specialties and significantly fewer entering general practice. 60% had children (mean 2.3 children per participant). The majority of women had managed to work part-time in their careers. Income per hour was lower for those who chose specialties to fit in with family commitments. Job satisfaction was moderately high, but varied between specialties. Over half were undecided about their specialty at graduation. Conclusions. A higher proportion of women is moving into specialties other than general practice. As about half of all medical graduates are women, most of whom will want to have children, training agencies and employers should continue to develop their programmes and jobs to facilitate the combination of work and family life.