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Where are all the male PAs ?????


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They're going to medical school.  Or, perhaps more appropriately, the mistaken belief that being a PA allows you to both have a career in medicine and have a family in ways that med school and residency do not has drawn more women into PA school, vs. not being in medicine at all.

 

Remember, women are becoming a greater proportion of college graduates in general, there are fewer PA programs available that accept e.g. AS paramedics or nurses, so there's also a supply/demand curve.  It's not just women, but it's YOUNG women--not too many veteran paramedics, military corpsmen, or nurses are applying, and the latter of those three groups is where I would expect to find most of the older women.

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It's the PA world that is 60:40, female:male.

I think there are several factors leading to this.

First, I think being a PA is particularly attractive to anyone keeping their options open, whether it be child bearing, child rearing, geographic preference or professional flexibility. I have met female PAs who like to travel and have gone to Antarctica, VT, the SouthWest and soon Semester at Sea. I also have met mommy PAs who raise their kids and work part time, it's a great part time job.

2nd, I think they recognize they dont want to be nurses and the pipeline to be a Dr. is very long and can be a contradiction to what is outlined in the previous point. They choose to be PAs or other healthcare professionals. Another healthcare profession with a female majority is Pharmacy. Nice job, nice pay, can have a flexible work environment.

3rd, my anecdotal experience from interviewing prospective students is that many of the female applicants are focused and goal directed as compared to male applicants whom I have found to be attracted to the PA profession because someone told them it was a good idea. The females seem more mature and overall appear to have their sh*t together than more of the male applicants. Many already come with life experience that is more significant than the males I have interviewed.

Last, the profession name still throws people off. My own personal experience with family and friends that were not educated concerning what a PA is and does, is that they think you are the person that takes their BP before the Dr sees them (not to downplay the importance of a well trained medical assistant).

G Brothers PA-C

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I think it has to do with the woosification of men and boys in the educational system.  The percentage of boys who graduate HS is less than girls and the percent of females who go to college now is greater than boys.  Boys have been told they can't play with guns, can't make noise in the schoolroom, girls get the attention, the boys with ADHD are punished and there is  no good public educational system to adapt to different learning styles.  Males and Females have different learning styles and needs and boys seem to get the short shrift. They have to act like girls in school. 

 

Female socialization of boys is going on in society and we are losing good men to the feminization of America and the idea that there is no difference between genders.  Thus boys get confused and have no desire to compete any more for jobs and careers in medicine and science. 

 

Camilla Paglia has a really good blog about this topic somewhere......Huff Po  I think?  And I don't agree with hardly anything Camilla says except this topic.  

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Paula just hit the nail on the head...

Anecdote - Out of the 70 seniors at my high school, 35 graduated. Of those 35, I was one of the ~10 young men who graduated. Of us 10, I'm the only one pursuing medicine. The others are film makers, musician majors, and sports management...or didn't even make it pass the 2nd semester of college.

 

Then again...this doesn't directly apply to where are all the male PAs. 

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Interesting question but I don't think it is wussification: we had stronger discipline in schools in "my day" then they do now and it didn't hold us back. I think that, to a degree, women today are benefiting from being freed from stereotypes while some guys unfortunately seem to latch on to shiny objects:

 

- My wife was told by her guidance counselor that women couldn't become vets -- just teachers, nurses, secretaries, or full-time moms. Our daughter became a vet.

- My engineering class of 400 had 2 women and women were not allowed in the engineering honorary. Now there are lots of women in engineering school and the engineering society has had a female national president.

- Today's women fly, fight, doctor, or whatever else they would like to try to do.

 

- Boys always watched and played sports but were mostly trained to be goal-oriented by fathers from "The Greatest Generation." Science was revered as the hope for our future and we watched guys (mostly, at first) go to the moon. Now science is often downgraded in favor of all kinds of other voices. Many boys now in high school are interested in finding careers in media, music, gaming, or sports. Or to quickly make lots of money so they can keep doing those things.

 

I still hold out great hope for the current generation but I don't think letting boys take cap guns to school is the answer. STEM schools might be, but I think that it starts with the expectation of one's parents. Thank God I got the ones that I did!

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Thank God for my parents, too. Now I know how to spell wussification except spell check still highlights it in this version, but it looks right!!!  The spelling and pronunciation may be different in regions of the country.  We say Woos here, not Wuss.  But spelling doesn't answer the question posted by the OP.  LOL!!!

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I think it has to do with the woosification of men and boys in the educational system. The percentage of boys who graduate HS is less than girls and the percent of females who go to college now is greater than boys. Boys have been told they can't play with guns, can't make noise in the schoolroom, girls get the attention, the boys with ADHD are punished and there is no good public educational system to adapt to different learning styles. Males and Females have different learning styles and needs and boys seem to get the short shrift. They have to act like girls in school.

 

Female socialization of boys is going on in society and we are losing good men to the feminization of America and the idea that there is no difference between genders. Thus boys get confused and have no desire to compete any more for jobs and careers in medicine and science.

 

Camilla Paglia has a really good blog about this topic somewhere......Huff Po I think? And I don't agree with hardly anything Camilla says except this topic.

 

If you hadn't listed where you read this, I would've sworn you saw this in Esquire- this is an viewpoint they've presented for several years now
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Women tend to lead more balanced lives and are less likely to pursue achievement in an isolated area at the expense of other major life dimensions (particularly social life). When girls got more encouragement to go into science, it made sense for them to land in a profession that mixes science with human interaction. Males who have scientific interest and aptitude are more likely to get funneled into less social fields like engineering (and thus away from medicine) and men still dominate STEM fields in general.


 


From an evolutionary perspective, med school makes less sense for women than for men. A woman who goes to med school will have her time wrapped up until she's around thirty. Yes, that investment earns her more status, power, and income. However, it comes at the expense of the bulk of her fertile years, during which time she had little time for dating and relationships. In addition to having a narrowed time frame with which to find a mate, her high status/income ironically also narrows the range of potential suitors. On the other hand, a man who goes to med school is fertile into old age and his higher status/power actually expands his range of potential mates. Med school just doesn't make good evolutionary sense for young women since it increases the likelihood they will get wiped from the gene pool (lady pre-PAs, I encourage you to use this explanation next time an interviewer asks you why you didn't go for MD).


 


 


Side notes:


 


There is much more to anti-male policies than just prohibiting cap-guns. There is also expelling of boys for fashioning a sandwich into a gun. There's shortening of recess. There is a veering away from classroom activities that are competitive in favor of ones that respect everyone's feelings. Society's pendulum has swung in favor of women and this is especially evident in the field of grade school education, which was female-dominated to begin with (read The War Against Boys by Christina Hoff Sommers). However, I don't think this is an adequate explanation for the preponderance of female PAs.


 


Wussy is a combination of "wimp" and another word. Hence, there is only one correct spelling.


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More women than men in medicine both PA and MD. 

 

Data shows that primary care female with a child makes more money as PA than MD. ref: yale school of mgmt study.

 

Men are not going to medical school bc it is better that was an ignorant and rude comment. 

 

And versatility is not what people think I have been saying that for years 

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My class is 75% female, 25% male. That seems to be the current typical breakdown in PA school.

 

Several of the female students have indicated future child/family planning as a motivating factor in choosing PA over MD. They also indicated mostly positive encouragement to enter the profession.

 

A few male students have indicated that they encountered remarks like "Why not go to med school/Be a doctor?" when bringing up their choice in family/social contexts. I think there is an ego issue, especially for younger males.

 

The oldest members of our class are males. In fact, most of the female students are in their early 20s, while most of the males are mid-to-late 20s and beyond.

 

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My class is 75% female, 25% male. That seems to be the current typical breakdown in PA school. Several of the female students have indicated future child/family planning as a motivating factor in choosing PA over MD. They also indicated mostly positive encouragement to enter the profession. A few male students have indicated that they encountered remarks like "Why not go to med school/Be a doctor?" when bringing up their choice in family/social contexts. I think there is an ego issue, especially for younger males. The oldest members of our class are males. In fact, most of the female students are in their early 20s, while most of the males are mid-to-late 20s and beyond.

 

Same here on all counts. Still occasionally get told I should go be a doctor... I guess two wildly different careers isn't enough :)

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More women than men in medicine both PA and MD. 

 

Data shows that primary care female with a child makes more money as PA than MD. ref: yale school of mgmt study.

 

 

 

I dont think thats correct.  In my recollection, the study showed that hte return on investment was better for PA but that's not the same thing as saying that the PAs "made more money" than MDs.

 

Example:

 

Female MD goes 300k in debt, gets paid 170k on a part time schedule, gets delayed an extra 3 years in training

Female PA goes 40k in debt, gets paid 100k on the same part time schedule

 

Female MD makes more money, female PA has better return on investment.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I think it has to do with the woosification of men and boys in the educational system. The percentage of boys who graduate HS is less than girls and the percent of females who go to college now is greater than boys. Boys have been told they can't play with guns, can't make noise in the schoolroom, girls get the attention, the boys with ADHD are punished and there is no good public educational system to adapt to different learning styles. Males and Females have different learning styles and needs and boys seem to get the short shrift. They have to act like girls in school.

 

Female socialization of boys is going on in society and we are losing good men to the feminization of America and the idea that there is no difference between genders. Thus boys get confused and have no desire to compete any more for jobs and careers in medicine and science.

 

Camilla Paglia has a really good blog about this topic somewhere......Huff Po I think? And I don't agree with hardly anything Camilla says except this topic.

What does "act like girls" mean?
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