Table 1.
Characteristics of NHS doctors working in general practice and hospital practice: men and women split by working pattern throughout their careers, and by having or not having children. Values are percentages (numbers)
| Cohorts | Women | Men | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Always full time | Not always full time | With children | With no children | Always full time | Not always full time | With children | With no children | |||
| In general practice: | ||||||||||
| 1977 | 27.1 (85) | 72.9 (229) | NR | NR | 90.0 (486) | 10.0 (54) | NR | NR | ||
| 1988 | 20.8 (102) | 79.2 (388) | 87.3 (434) | 12.7 (63) | 84.5 (349) | 15.5 (64) | 86.4 (361) | 13.6 (57) | ||
| 1993 | 18.6 (80) | 81.4 (349) | 73.7 (320) | 26.3 (114) | 73.3 (203) | 26.7 (74) | 78.6 (217) | 21.4 (59) | ||
| All | 21.7 (267) | 78.3 (966) | 81.0 (754) | 19.0 (177) | 84.4 (1038) | 15.6 (192) | 83.3 (578) | 16.7 (116) | ||
| In hospital practice: | ||||||||||
| 1977 | 40.3 (102) | 59.7 (151) | NR | NR | 91.4 (614) | 8.6 (58) | NR | NR | ||
| 1988 | 42.6 (197) | 57.4 (265) | 74.4 (358) | 25.6 (123) | 94.3 (617) | 5.7 (37) | 81.9 (543) | 18.1 (120) | ||
| 1993 | 50.7 (271) | 49.3 (264) | 60.7 (326) | 39.3 (211) | 93.5 (675) | 6.5 (47) | 67.2 (487) | 32.8 (238) | ||
| All | 45.6 (570) | 54.4 (680) | 67.2 (684) | 32.8 (334) | 93.1 (1906) | 6.9 (142) | 74.2 (1030) | 25.8 (358) | ||
| Total | 33.7 (837) | 66.3 (1646) | 73.8 (1438) | 26.2 (511) | 89.8 (2944) | 10.2 (334) | 77.2 (1608) | 22.8 (474) | ||
NR=not recorded.
Numbers do not always sum to number of respondents working in NHS owing to non-responses to specific questions. Combining all three cohorts, 37 men and 51 women had full time status missing. Excluding the 1977 cohort (for which we did not collect data on children), three men and three women had children status missing.
Tests of statistical significance were at 0.01 level, on basis of χ2 tests. In both general practice and hospital practice, a significantly higher percentage of men than of women had always worked full time. In hospital practice, a significantly higher percentage of men than of women had children. A significantly higher percentage of women in hospital practice than in general practice had always worked full time. A significantly higher percentage of women in general practice than in hospital practice had children.