Gender, Work and Medicine Women and the Medical Division of Labour

Even though the proportion of female doctors is rising, continued constraints are placed on women in the health professions. A critical assessment of the division of labor in medicine, Gender, Work, and Medicine reveals the centrality of gender divisions both between and within the individual medical and health professions. Drawing on accounts from different countries and a wide range of such professional groups as doctors, nurses, and midwives, the contributors examine the extent to which the division of labor is changing and the effects of such changes on the status of women within the health professions. This broad-ranging book will be invaluable reading for students and lecturers in the medical professions, medical sociology, and gender studies. "The audience for this book is medical sociologists, policy makers and planners concerned with health work-force issues, and those who would encourage the professional development of women. The studies in this book not only contribute to empirical knowledge of sex as a factor in the division of labor in medicine, but also challenge existing sociological approaches to the study of professionals." --The New England Journal of Medicine "Gender, Work, and Medicine, edited by Elianne Riska and Katarina Wegar, addresses a void in the literature on the changing character of the medical profession and examines the gendered division of labor in various countries. . . . This book is a substantial contribution to the literature on the organization of work within and between health-care occupations. Wegar's provocative concluding essay places the diverse chapters in a broader theoretical framework. . . . Gender, Work, and Medicine is a valuable resource for anyone studying organizations and occupations or medical sociology, as well as those focusing more generally on gender stratification. The book contributes to a growing body of evidence indicating that researchers should not analyze the effect of organizational structures on the health professions in gender-neutral terms, and it is an excellent introduction to research on the complex social mechanisms affecting women's representation in health-care occupations." --Contemporary SociologyRiska, Elianne is the author of 'Gender, Work and Medicine Women and the Medical Division of Labour' with ISBN 9780803989030 and ISBN 0803989032.