ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the career patterns of a sample of professional women in Wales, specifically women doctors in hospital medicine, who are working part-time in order to combine their careers with motherhood. It draws to unravel the experiences of the group of women in their 'public' and 'private' lives on a day-to-day basis. The data are taken from a qualitative research project on trainee doctors; who are women, mothers and training part-time. The chapter examines how family status affects career decisions and so impacts on women doctors' career patterns. Central to the aims of the research project was the exploration of the meanings and interpretations of the doctor's own life history. Most of the women stated explicitly that, quite apart from career progression, the motivation for training part-time was because they wanted to participate in their children's lives which included being the one to take them to and from school when possible and acting as their "ferrying service".
