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When I was looking through the phone book the other day for a dentist, I didn't see one female name. Why is this particular field so devoid of women?
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posted
No definitive answers, but I have heard that dentristry is often a family profession and that a huge percentage of dental students had a parent who was a dentist.
I'm not sure what that means, but it suggests to me that tradition is a big reason to get into it.
Anyone ever looked into how women choose career paths - whether they follow their mother or their father more?
If their mother, it could be that there are few female dentists now because there were few female dentists before.
Alternatively: You live in Utah, and being a dentist means many years of schooling and taking on lots of debt, but it's something (from what I gather from dentist friends) that few people actual dream of being. Rather, it's a career path chose specifically for the benefits (good hours, huge pay) it brings rather than the work itself.
Maybe women who don't see their role as the primary wage earner don't have a reason to choose dentistry.
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I found out way after the fact, that my mother switched dentists when I was a kid so that I would have a female dentist as a role model. Didn't do it with the family doc though.
She wanted one of us to be a doctor, one a dentist, and one an optomotrist... she struck out on all three counts, and ended up with 2 engineers and 1 career lifeguard. The lifeguard is an EMT, but that's as close as she got.
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I was just actually posting to say that that's how I read it, and that although many of my dentists have inflicted pain, I didn't think that they were actually mean.
But they have all been men. I've never had a female dentist. And I don't live in Utah.
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I recently noticed the same thing. What's more, I don't think I've ever flown on a plane in my life with a female pilot. Is that weird, or is it just me?
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Tradition / occupational discrimination (both active and fairweather) / vocational pursuit dissuasion / cultural upbringing patterns / gender socialization issues, all wrapped in a big taquito shell.
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I went to the dentist for the first time in about 10 years today. All three of the dentists were women, and I had no cavities to speak of. They were all in shock.
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My uncle's a dentist, and he recently hired a partner who's female.
One of my good friends from high school is dating a female dentist, though it's a family business for her.
In other words, I think the field is just a few years behind in gender equality. In ten years I don't think it'll be very hard to find a female dentist.
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I wonder if the reason most of the dentists you're seeing as male is because men are more likely to own their own practice.
Everyone in my family used to go to a different dental practice (I now go to the one my mom does). My dad's is three male dentists in one office, father and two sons. Mine was a man and three women but he owned it and was listed in the phonebook, it was a children's dentist clinic that later switched to just orthodontics. My mom's is one woman, who owns it herself, her father was a dentist but not here.
Posts: 5362 | Registered: Apr 2004
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My dentist in California was big old school guy who didn't use gloves. This was 2004. No gloves! It was thrilling. He didn't know me from Adam, yet he'd dig in there with his huge hands like he were taking a hill. There was something heroic about the way he practiced dentistry.
Irami: I haven't been to a dentist in six or seven years. I brush and rinse at least twice a day and I carry a kit with me in my bag. I just kind of wanted some teeth whitening.
Dentist: Your teeth are plenty white.
Irami: uh...okay.
It was surreal. I don't know who was crazier, him or me for thinking he was the coolest dentist ever. At the end of the check-ups, I felt as though I'd completed a ropes course.
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quote:Originally posted by Irami Osei-Frimpong: My dentist in California was big old school guy who didn't use gloves. This was 2004. No gloves! It was thrilling. He didn't know me from Adam, yet he'd dig in there with his huge hands like he were taking a hill.
This is why I don't trust dentists. What a perverse career. Sticking your fingers in other people's mouths like that. Geuh.
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My last dentist was a woman. And Asian, so her hands were really small. She was in up to her wrists.
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Is it important that there be complete gender equality in the field? Should we be encouraging more girls/women to become dentists in particular, or is this just a small part of the bigger gender equality picture?
Posts: 5957 | Registered: Oct 2001
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I think the reason that there are less women dentists than men dentists is the same reason there are less women in "professional" fields in general: men have less babies than women.
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I think the better way to phrase that is that couples decide the women will stay home to take care of that baby more often than they decide the man will stay home.
The odd number around here are the number of male dentists married to female dermatologists. Every time I see a sign around here for a dentist, the office is attached to a dermatologist's office, and they are always married. Maybe dentists are just naturally attracted to dermatologists?
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porcelain girl: at the very least, that would not explain why there are far, far fewer women in dentistry than in other professional fields, even if it was a reasonable explanation in general.
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3 of the last 4 dentists I have been to were women. At my current practice, it's one man and two women. The man started the practice, then his daughter followed him into the profession and joined, and then they had a hygienist work her way through dental school with them and join. They supported her greatly through the process, I believe.
Anyway, I do think it's a field where parental role-modeling makes a big difference. Who grows up wanting to be a dentist? Someone who sees that their Dad has a pretty easy job, enjoys his work, makes plenty of money, and can set his own hours. Following your father into the family business is a "traditional" thing to do, and I think that many women who go into "non-traditional" business get their through non-traditional career paths. As women are more accepted in the professions now, I think that's less and less likely to be true, and so agree with JT that you'll see more and more female dentists in the next decade or so.
However, since it is a profession where people tend to have their own small practices, I also agree that you won't see as many women in solo practice. If a woman wants to have children at all, she can't be the only dentist in the office. Not only because she couldn't maintain her client base while on maternity leave, but also because an office with one dentist probably has 2 hygienists, a receptionist, and an office manager all dependent on the dentist being working to pay their salaries.
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I think it balances out with women optometrists. You don't have to touch anyone and the hours are amenable. I wouldn't be surprised if, under forty, the field is overflowing with women.
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quote:Originally posted by fugu13: porcelain girl: at the very least, that would not explain why there are far, far fewer women in dentistry than in other professional fields, even if it was a reasonable explanation in general.
No, it DOES explain it the same way that it explains why the majority of the time hunter gatherer societies had a division of labor based on gender, with women doing most of the gathering.
Lawyers and doctors go to school an incredibly long time. Many women get pregnant within that timeframe of their lives, and many choose to postpone or cancel professional plans while bearing, nursing, and raising children. That is also what I meant by "men have less babies." They don't give birth. Having as in the delivering, not the parenting.
Women used to also have a hard time being accepted socially into these fields, and even though many women have pressed onward and have changed society's outlook on things, we had a lot of catching up to do.
I am in no way saying there aren't valid female professionals, nor am I saying women shouldn't pursue careers. It is just a fact that there are less women in those fields that require an extra 4 to 6 years of school, and I believe being the only sex that can give birth and that has been traditionally accepted as the primary caretaker has a lot to do with that. Or at least it had in the not too distant past.
Things ARE changing, but remember that far more people are going to college in general than were fifty years ago.
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I don't think you understood my point at all.
There are more women lawyers and women doctors than there are women dentists. Even if your explanation for the general differential is correct, there is still unexplained difference between lawyers/doctors and dentists.
Posts: 15770 | Registered: Dec 2001
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quote:Originally posted by fugu13: I don't think you understood my point at all.
There are more women lawyers and women doctors than there are women dentists. Even if your explanation for the general differential is correct, there is still unexplained difference between lawyers/doctors and dentists.
Oh, that is simple enough. Refer to my original post: dentistry is perverse. Men are far more prone to be perverted than women. [/slice.]
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One point to consider is there is not a school of dentistry in Utah, so anyone who is practicing in Utah had to make a conscious decision to come there. So added into all the other social factors, you have to look at those 17% of women dentists that exist and ask how many of them want to practice in Utah.
That said, my children's first dentist (in Utah) was a woman, but then she retired.
In addition to all the other status and success issues, the fact that dentists are not well liked could be another reason for the lack of females in the field. Unless no one else here thinks women care more about being liked.
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My last two dentists have been female. My current one (which I like very much) went into the field 'cuz it was a family thing (her dad or granddad was a dentist, and she is following in his footsteps.) She has photos/articles about his practice all over her waiting room. Obviously highly respected him.
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