ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the stress among women doctors by concentrating on the research literature and qualitative data from the interviews with women doctors. Nowadays a significant proportion of women participate in the labour market in most western countries. However, the employment rates are greater among certain groups of mothers: those with employed partners, higher levels of education and higher status occupations. For most employed adults work and family are the major life roles. There are two main types of work-family conflict: time-based conflict and strain-based conflict. The chapter presents the findings of the qualitative studies and aims to identify sources of stress among general practitioners, hospital doctors and their families. The chapter analyses responses to questions about sources of stress to identify recurrent themes concerning sources of stress at work and at home. It discusses the stressors concerning female general practitioners. They are: role conflict, emotional involvement, work overload, lack of support, lack of time, career stress, and communication difficulties.
