More female than male doctors for first time ever in the UK

Female doctors are greater in number than their male counterparts for the first time ever in the UK, the General Medical Council (GMC) has announced.

Data collected by the GMC shows there are 164,440 women (50.04%) registered with a licence to practise, compared with 164,195 men (49.96%).

The areas with most women doctors are Obstetrics and Gynaecology (63% female, 37% male) and Paediatrics (60.8% female, 39.2% male). There are also more licensed female GPs (57.7% female, 42.3% male).  The specialties with the lowest proportion of women are Surgery (16.9% female, 83.1% male), Ophthalmology (35.1% female, 64.9% male) and Emergency Medicine (37.1% female, 62.9% male).

However, the number of women in these specialties is climbing. From 2023 to 2024, Emergency Medicine had the second-highest growth at (7.8%) and Surgery the third highest (5.1%). Women working in Ophthalmology grew by 3.7%.

Each year since 2015 there has been an increase in the proportion of women with a licence to practise. That trend means women have now reached parity with, and overtaken, men in the medical profession.

One of the driving factors has been more women joining UK medical schools. Since 2018/19, there have been more female than male medical students in all four UK countries. In 2023/24 the UK medical student intake was 60% female, and in Northern Ireland even higher at 72%.

The 2024 data show variations across the four countries of the UK. There are more women than men working as doctors in Scotland (54.8% female, 45.2% male) and Northern Ireland (53.5% female, 46.5% male). Though the UK currently shows parity overall, England (49.7% female, 50.3% male) and Wales (47.3% female, 52.7% male) are also expected to do so in the near future.

The news follows publication of the GMC’s The state of medical education and practice: Workforce report in November 2024, which highlighted a continuing shift towards parity and the expectation that women would, in the next few years, form the majority of the workforce. It also showed, for the first time, there are more doctors from ethnic minority backgrounds than white doctors working in the UK.

The milestone has prompted fresh calls from the GMC, British Medical Association (BMA) and Medical Women’s Federation (MWF) for healthcare leaders and workforce planners to consider the changing demographics of the medical population, as UK health services continue to face extreme pressures and staffing challenges.

Professor Dame Carrie MacEwen, Chair of the GMC and a consultant ophthalmologist said:

‘This is a significant milestone. The demographics of the medical workforce are rapidly changing, and that diversity will benefit patients. It is vital that every doctor is valued, irrespective of their gender, ethnicity or any other characteristic.

‘But women training for careers in medicine continue to face challenges that must be acknowledged and tackled. And for those women already working as doctors there is still work to do to create supportive and inclusive workplaces, and to ensure they have access to progression opportunities, including leadership roles, so that they can have long and fulfilling careers in medicine.’

Dr Latifa Patel, Chair of the BMA Representative Body, said:

‘To have more female than male doctors in the UK is a significant milestone for the profession and for patients. Retaining women doctors in the workplace, in the NHS and happy and fulfilled in their roles, must be a priority. They must be able to care for their patients without being subjected to sexual harassment and sexism and we need the Government and the NHS to bring in specific measures to retain women doctors – such as work and career plans that better recognise maternity leave, the need to balance work with child caring responsibilities with better onsite nursery provision and recognising the importance of flexible working.

‘When you look more closely at the figures, we see huge variations in the type of medical specialties women doctors go into – the majority choosing to be a GP or paediatrician – but very few are choosing surgery. These disparities are not acceptable for career progression, or for patient care as all patients should be able to benefit from the skills and expertise of a female doctor as well as a male one.

‘We are keen to see the Government and employers’ plans to help retain and attract more women into medicine.’

Professor Scarlett McNally, President of the Medical Women’s Federation and a surgeon, said:

“This huge change should be celebrated. The public should respect the doctor and ask her about their treatment options. Increasingly, patients have complexity or multiple long-term conditions. Doctors have knowledge, skills and experience, to balance risks. To deliver decades of excellent service as GPs, consultants and SAS doctors, doctors must get through postgraduate training. This has too few training posts, rigid rotations and excessive administrative workload – which all need improving, especially as it often coincides with pregnancy and early-years parenting.

“NHS clinical leadership roles should be advertised with realistic time and role-share options, to get the best leaders and good teamworking. We must all value women doctors as an excellent untapped talent and stop waiting for a mythical knight in shining armour.”

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