精神経誌（2008）110 巻 7 号

558

第回日本精神神経学会総会

シ ⃞ン ⃞ポ ⃞ジ ⃞ウ ⃞ム⃞

The Signiﬁcance of the Increase in Women Psychiatrists in Korea
Ha kyoung Kim , Soo in Kim
1）Psycho‑Oncology Clinic, National Cancer Center, Kyonggi, Korea,
2）Department of Psychiatry, College of Medicine, Ewha Womans University, Seoul, Korea

The number of female doctors has increased in Korea ; 18.9%（13,083）of the total medical
doctors registered（69,097） were women in 2006, compared to 13.6% （2,216） in 1975. The
proportion of female doctors will jump up by 2010 considering that nearly 40% of the medical
students are women as of today. This trend has had strong inﬂuence on the ﬁeld of psychiatry;the percentage of women psychiatrists rose from 1.6（6）% to 18%（453）,from 1975 to 2006 and
now women residents comprise 39%（206）of all.
This is not only a reﬂection of a social phenomenon of the increase in professional women
but also attributed to some speciﬁc characteristics of the psychiatry. Psychiatric practice may
come more natural to women.
While clinical activities of women psychiatrists are expanding,there are few women leadersand much less women are involving in academic activities in this ﬁeld as yet. Though there isless sexual discrimination in the ﬁeld of psychiatry,women psychiatrists are still having a lot ofdiﬃculties in balancing work and family matters. Many women psychiatrists also report theyʼveever felt an implied discrimination in their careers.
In this study,we are to identify the characteristics of women psychiatrists and to explore thesigniﬁcance of the increase in women psychiatrists in Korea and the situation in which they are.

The number of women doctors is rapidly increasing around the world. The situation in

Korea is not exceptional. In 1975,13.6%（2,216）of the total medical doctors were women,but now,in 2006, 18.9%（13,083）are women in Korea . The percentage of women psychiatrists rose from1.6%（6）in 1975 to 18%（453）in 2006. Since women comprise 39%（206）of all psychiatric residents
and also nearly 40% of the medical students are women as of today,we can expect the proportionof women psychiatrists will jump up in the immediate future .
However,there have been few studies about how this will aﬀect the medical societyand Koreansociety in general. To address this issue, we conducted a preliminary survey about diﬀerences incharacteristics of men and women psychiatrists in Korea.
The purpose of this study is to identify characteristics of women psychiatrists by comparing
men and women who are active in psychiatry with regard to academic activities,clinical practices
and personal lives. And then we are to assess the changing situation.

シンポジウム：各国の状況：女性医師の状況を中心に

559

MethodSubjects were psychiatrists who were registered in Korean Neuropsychiatric Associations（KNPA）and got the psychiatric specialist certiﬁcations after 1992. Total number of subjects were1,292; men, 1,009（78%）, women, 283（22%）. We sent questionnaires by e‑mail to 1,137 psychiatrists whose e‑mail addresses are on the list.
Out of the 1,137 potential respondents, 122 completed and returned their questionnaires; men,77（63%）, women, 45（37%）.
We used the questionnaire made by Japanese Young Psychiatrists Organization（JYPO）which
included 40 questions about demographic characteristic,work setting,academic achievement,careergoal, future expectation and clinical practice and added one new section, ʻthe opinion of psychiatristsʼgender diﬀerencesʼ.
We used SAS program to analyze the results. Categorical variables were analyzed by chi
square method and Studentʼ
s t‑test was used for the continuous variables. If 25‑50% of cell has
expectation frequency lower than 5, we used Fisherʼs exact test. If the data doesnʼ
t show normal
distribution, we used Wilcoxon rank‑sum test.
Results
In demographics data,there were no signiﬁcant diﬀerences between men and women,except themarital status; more men psychiatrists（90%）were married than women（75%）. M ean age of thesubjects were 38.3 and 36.7 in men and women respectively and mean duration of psychiatrists was
6.7 years in both sexes.
With regard to work setting,both sexes showed quite similar distribution. The majority of theparticipants（men, 44%, women, 36%）were working at university hospitals.
In the opinion of academic activity,60% of men psychiatrists answered theywant to do becauseof their interests, but 55% of women psychiatrists answered that they do it mainly to pursue
scholarly achievements.
With regard to career goal and future expectation,nearlyhalf of both sexes（men,50%,women,49%）desired to be involved in research and 77% of both sexes wished to get a PhD degree or took
it already.
In both men and women psychiatrists, clinical practice accounts for a greater part of theirprofession（54% and 68%, respectively）, but men responded that they spent more time in researchthan women（mean 27% and 17% of their work hours, respectively）.
The motivation of becoming a psychiatrist was interest in mind in over 75% of both sexes.
Career satisfaction was pretty high in both sexes; 95% and 96% of men and women respectively
answered that they were very or usually satisﬁed with their career.
A remarkable thing was that more women psychiatrists were interested in child‑adolescent
psychiatry than men（56% vs. 21%）
. This is a consistent ﬁnding with other studies of a couple ofwestern countries .
When one feels unstable,more men psychiatrists tended to resolve by themselves than women（52% vs.32%）,and more women psychiatrists had a tendency to consult with friends or familythan

精神経誌（2008）110 巻 7 号

560

men（17% vs. 5%）.
In the opinion of increment of women psychiatrists, the majority of both men and women
psychiatrists thought itʼs desirable in terms of quality improvement of psychiatric treatment（87%,63%,respectively）. However,only 15% of women thought itʼs desirable for the academic development. We asked the participants the reason why women psychiatrists are increasing as an openquestion. The most common answer was the increase of women medical students（35%）, and thesecond was the grown preference of psychiatry from women doctors（17%）and the reﬂection ofsocial phenomenon was the third most common answer（16%）. Some of the other answers included
the lower physical burden, the suﬃcient personal time, the growth of academic interest in women,
and the decrease of apply of men psychiatrists.
Both sexes thought they had advantage of their gender as psychiatrists, when it came totreating patients. However,more women thought theyhad a disadvantage than men（58% vs.30%）,
and around half of women participants answered that they were at a disadvantage in getting aposition of workplace or making career decision.
In the problem between family life and professional life,while more men had disturbance in therelationship with partner, more women had disturbances in the relationship with children, parents
and parents‑in‑law.
Limitations
Our studyhas some limitations. First one is the low response rate. We have just 10.7% responserate. So we canʼt expect that these respondents represent total active psychiatrists in Korea.
Secondly, the data were self reported. We can anticipate the bias due to self‑reporting. Finally,
more active psychiatrists might have participated in the survey, which can make a selection bias.
Discussion and Conclusion
To sum up,among young psychiatrists with mean duration of psychiatrists of 6.7 years,almost
half of both men and women participants were working at university hospitals and desired to keep
involved in academic activities. Women psychiatrists were doing academic activities mainly topursue scholarly achievements,while men were doing it because of their interests. M en spent moretime in research than women and only 15% of women participants thought the increment of women
psychiatrists was desirable for the academic development. On the other hand,over half of womenthought they had a disadvantage, especially in getting a position of workplace or making careerdecision. And more women had disturbances in the relationship with children,parents and parents‑
in‑law than men.
There are two inconsistent aspects in some important areas of women psychiatristsʼlives.
While they were quite motivated towards academic achievement, they spent less time in researchthan men. More women were single and women had more problems in relationship with theirfamilies. It seems that they have some diﬃculty in balancing work and personal lives such as
marriage,parenting,and the role of daughter or daughter in law. And they seem ambivalent about
their ability. They felt somewhat disadvantaged and thought they had less opportunity in career.

シンポジウム：各国の状況：女性医師の状況を中心に

561

At the same time, they had less conﬁdence in themselves when it came to academic activity.
The increase of women in professional job has become general trend in Korea,especially,in aprofession which can be acquired by a test without any sexual discrimination, such as legal ormedical profession. And evidence suggests that female physicians oﬀer more emotional support,encouragement,and reassurance to their patients and engage in more psychosocial discussion thanmale physicians. That is to say, psychiatric practice may come more natural to women. The

increment of women psychiatrists might have been inﬂuenced by those factors. Besides,around halfof the successful applicants for the internship of the major hospitals with superior training environment were women this year, since these hospitals have been selecting doctors based on the grades
regardless of their sex or alma mater lately. Recently,women are dominating the top spots among
medical students. However, there are still few women leaders in medical profession. Among theteaching staﬀs of university hospitals, only around 7.7‑13.7% are women .
Whatʼs happening to those women with superior grades? Many doctors think itʼs mainly
because women could not devote themselves to their work due to housework including childbirthand rearing. According to recent survey by Korean intern resident association,although 81% of all
training hospitals were allowing 3 months of legal maternity leave, 71.7% of pregnant doctors intraining couldnʼ
t take full advantage of legal maternity leave, worrying about burdening theircolleagues and failing courses . And itʼ
s an unwritten rule that a woman must not get married orhave a child during her early yearsʼof training. Recognition of such diﬃculties faced by female
doctors will be the ﬁrst step to lead more productive workforce in this changing medical environment.
Now that around 40% of entering medical students are women in Korea,an institute that fails
to develop the potential of the increasing women doctors might fall behind. We should take thecurrent situation as an opportunity to alter medical society in a constructive way. To do so,more
evidence‑based research and information on the reasons for inequalities in career and barriers inacademic lives of women psychiatrists are needed.
References1）Bogan, A.M., Safer, D.L.: Women in Psychiatric Training. Academic Psychiatry, 28（4）; 305‑309, 2004
2）Frank,E.,Boswell,L.,Dickstein,L.J.,et al.: Characteristics of Female Psychiatrists.Am J Psychiatry,158;
205‑212, 2001
3）Garﬁnkel,P.E.,Bagby,M .,Schuller,D.R.,et al.: Gender diﬀerences in the practice characteristics and career
satisfaction of psychiatrists in Ontario. Academic Psychiatry, 28（4）; 310‑320, 2004
4）Kohen, D., Arnold, E.: The female psychiatrist : professional, personal and social issues. Advances in
Psychiatric Treatment, 8; 81‑88, 2002
5）Korean Intern Resident Association : Working Conditions of Intern and Residents in Training Hospitals in
Korea. 20076）Korean Neuropsychiatric Association : Annual Report. 2006
7）M inistry of Health and Welfare: Annual statistics report of health and welfare in Korea. 1976, 20078）Park, C.W.: Employment opportunities in female Ph.D.s for faculty positions: the case of biochemistry in
Korea. Population Assoc Korea, 29（1）; 157‑183, 2006

Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

562

精神経誌（2008）110 巻 7 号

9）Roter, D.L., Hall, J.A., Aoki, Y.: Physician gender eﬀects in medical communication : a meta‑analyticreview. JAMA, 288; 756‑764, 2002
10）Sohn,I.K.,Lee,J.H.,Cho,I.H.,et al.: Patient‑Centeredness in Faculties,Residents and Medical Students.J
Korean Neuropsychiatr Assoc, 41（2）; 290‑297, 2002