Gender, Work and Medicine

Women and the Medical Division of Labour

`The audience for this book is medical sociologists, policy-makers, planners concerned with health work-force issues, and those who would encourage the professional development of women. The studies 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 concluding chapter by Wegar is a masterly analysis both of the preceeding chapters' findings and of the misuse of sex as a universalizing explanatory concept' - The New England Journal of Medicine

`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 context... 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 Sociology

`I found this a useful and interesting, if sometimes sobering, volume with interesting insights into the importance of gender divisions both within and between the health professions' - Medical Sociology News