The battle of the sexes rages quietly on

"What hurdles do women doctors face?" A couple of issues ago we ran this survey question with an accompanying article ("Physician survey breeds discontent," Vol 1 No 21) that looked into why female doctors work shorter hours and how they're viewed by the profession. The response we got from readers was pretty surprising.

The top response was orthodox enough: 55% of you said the biggest professional hurdle to women is their primary responsibility for childcare. What was a little more startling was the number of physicians, both male and female, who went with option E of the poll, which said women docs have "got it easy working less" — a pretty significant 14%.

The bitterness of many respondents practically flew off the page. One (male) GP mused that women docs can afford to work less because they're married to other professionals who support them financially. A (female) peer had a different take — she wished that women MDs had stay-at-home wives to help them out too. But not all her sisters-in-arms agree. Another female doc (GP) advised her colleagues to grow up and stop griping, while others said we were missing the point — all doctors are working too many hours. A couple of you pointed out that a system that encourages workaholicism and doesn't allow for flexible working hours is inherently flawed.

With their undercurrent of suppressed acrimony, these survey comments read a bit like a Victorian closet drama — seething emotion bubbling just under the surface. We can only hope it doesn't all explode into a revenger's tragedy at a CME conference. It may sound hackneyed, but isn't it time to move out of the shadows, abandon anonymous sniping, and just talk? About humane working hours, about decent parental leave and about a profession that caters to all its members? And try to love one another right now?

Pollyanna-isms aside, since everyone's already talking about fee schedule reform, coming up with a system that allows all doctors to spend more time with their patients and their families, without fear of losing out financially or professionally, just makes good sense.

— Gillian Woodford, News/Features Editor