ABSTRACT
In less than a quarter of a century, transformations of a breadth unprecedented in human history have caused an upheaval in women's situation in the most affluent countries. Through education and employment, women have rid themselves of the yoke that bound them to their homes for centuries and made them the servants of men. Gender is definitely a major factor in the working world. Schools may produce equality and establish the supremacy of skill, but these are shattered by the rigidities of the labour process. Now it is a fact that such rigidities are increasingly less justified by the technical characteristics of particular positions or types of jobs. Women's massive entry into medicine has transformed the profession. Whereas in the 1960s the central figure in the health professions was the family doctor, a general practitioner in private practice, women have gone into salaried work, into the hospitals, into group practice and, by dint of further training, into medical specialities.
