Practice and Life Patterns of Women and Men Physicians, 1974-1975

This study was undertaken to examine the career and work patterns of women physicians in comparison to both men physicians and nonphysician women neighbor controls. Of particular interest were factors involved in productivity, life-cycle decisions, "role overload," and "role conflict" of men and women physicians, as well as demographic and attitudinal data on all three groups. A 207-item questionnaire was administered by trained interviewers to 87 female physicians, 95 male physicians, and 87 female neighbors of the female doctors who acted as a control group in the tricounty metropolitan Detroit area in 1974-1975. Most of the neighbors did not have paid employment. Topics covered in the interview included demographic information, data on the respondent's spouse and parents, educational and occupational history, household division of labor, life-cycle decisions, role conflict issues, and religious and moral issues; attitudinal scales related to women in medicine, the structure of the medical profession, social change, and women's roles in the family, the professions, and in the larger society. The Murray Archive holds additional analogue materials for this study (copies of interviews). If you would like to access this material, please apply to use the data.