In their study female medical trainees and academics were less likely than their male counterparts to have children. Perhaps male physicians retreat to the intellectual stimulation and order of the clinic rather than committing increasing hours to the routine and sometimes monotonous work of the home. For women, shaking off their traditional role of keeper of the family is a challenge fraught with guilt. Perhaps that is why married women and those with children spend more time on parenting than do men, and suffer more dual career conflict. Cujec and colleagues found that residents had the highest level of career dissatisfaction of those surveyed.
Job stress is greatest when demands are high and when control and decision authority are low.
In general, medicine offers remarkable job control and a stimulating environment. But again, I must maintain some perspective. The majority of physicians spend some of their income to hire nannies and house cleaners. Their work defines stressful in Karasek's model. The solutions are both obvious and elusive.