Doctor, doctor, give me the news

Great news on multiple fronts from the Canadian Institute for Health Information. The lead story is about a net inflow of doctors in 2004: many less doctors are leaving, and more are arriving than in 2000. But the more interesting point is that concerning gender balance:

Canada's physician workforce is increasingly female. CIHI's latest statistics show that the number of female physicians increased by 14 per cent in the last five years, from 16,945 in 2000 to 19,365 in 2004.

In contrast, the number of male physicians increased only slightly (0.6 per cent), from 40,841 in 2000 to 41,071 in 2004. In 2004, women accounted for almost one-third (32 per cent) of the total supply of physicians, representing a 10-per-cent increase since 2000.

But among physicians age 40 and under, females represented nearly half (47 per cent) of the total physician workforce in 2004.

Based on these numbers, while there's still a ways to go in equalizing the workforce, it looks like we can safely say that there's something resembling gender parity for recent medical graduates. The next task should then be to work on having more doctors of both genders in order to meet the needs of the health care system.