Female doctors are greater in number than their male counterparts for the first time ever in the UK, the General Medical Council (GMC) has announced today.

Data collected by the regulator showed that last month 164,440 women (50.04%) had a licence to practise, compared with 164,195 men (49.96%).

The Medical Act 1876 allowed women to practise medicine for the first time, although they had to wait until 1892 before they were able to join the British Medical Association (BMA).

Each year since 2015, there has been an increase in the proportion of women with a licence to practise medicine. One of the driving factors has been more women joining UK medical schools. Since 2018-19, there have been more female than male medical students in all four UK countries. In 2023-24, the UK medical student intake was 60% female. In Northern Ireland, it stood at 72%.

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There are more women than men working as doctors in Scotland (54.8% female) and Northern Ireland (53.5%), but in England (49.7%) and Wales (47.3%), there are more men.

A GMC workforce report in November 2024 also showed, for the first time, that there are more doctors from ethnic minority backgrounds than British-born white doctors working in the UK.

Today’s milestone has prompted fresh calls from the GMC, BMA and the Medical Women’s Federation (MWF) for healthcare leaders to consider the changing demographics of the medical population, as UK health services continue to face extreme pressures and staffing challenges.

Professor Dame Carrie MacEwen, chair of the GMC and a consultant ophthalmologist, said: “This is a significant milestone. The demographics of the medical workforce are rapidly changing, and that diversity will benefit patients. It is vital that every doctor is valued, irrespective of their gender, ethnicity or any other characteristic.

“But women training for careers in medicine continue to face challenges that must be acknowledged and tackled. And for those women already working as doctors, there is still work to do to create supportive and inclusive workplaces and to ensure they have access to progression opportunities, including leadership roles, so that they can have long and fulfilling careers in medicine.”

Dr Latifa Patel, chair of the BMA representative body, said: “Retaining women doctors in the workplace in the NHS, and happy and fulfilled in their roles, must be a priority.

“They must be able to care for their patients without being subjected to sexual harassment and sexism and we need the government and the NHS to bring in specific measures to retain women doctors – such as work and career plans that better recognise maternity leave, the need to balance work with child caring responsibilities with better onsite nursery provision and recognising the importance of flexible working.”

Female doctors by specialty

However, the statistics show significant variations in the type of medicine women specialise in. The areas with the most women doctors are obstetrics and gynaecology (63% female), paediatrics (60.8%) and general practice (57.7%), while the lowest proportions are in surgery (16.9%), ophthalmology (35.1%) and emergency medicine (37.1%).

The number of women in these specialties is climbing. In 2023-24, emergency medicine had the second-highest growth at +7.8% and surgery the third-highest (+5.1%). Women working in ophthalmology grew by +3.7%. The highest rise overall was in occupational medicine (+8.3%), of which 37.7% are female.

Patel commented: “These disparities are not acceptable for career progression – or for patient care – as all patients should be able to benefit from the skills and expertise of a female doctor as well as a male one.”

Professor Scarlett McNally, a surgeon and MWF president, said that postgraduate training opportunities to become, for example, a surgeon are limited and inflexible. She said there are “too few training posts, rigid rotations and excessive administrative workload – which all need improving, especially as it often coincides with pregnancy and early-years parenting”.

“NHS clinical leadership roles should be advertised with realistic time and role-share options to get the best leaders and good teamworking. We must all value women doctors as an excellent untapped talent and stop waiting for a mythical knight in shining armour.”

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