Female physicians with children still take on most domestic responsibilities, which may contribute to career dissatisfaction, according to a study published in JAMA Surgery.
For the study, researchers surveyed 1,712 attending physician mothers between April 28 and May 26, 2015.
A majority of respondents (99.2 percent) were married or had a partner. Most respondents said they had sole responsibility for most domestic tasks, such as child care, grocery shopping or helping with homework.
Physician mothers in procedural specialties who reported sole responsibility for five or more domestic tasks were more likely to want to change careers than physician mothers with fewer domestic responsibilities.
"For proceduralist mothers, self-reported higher levels of domestic responsibility were associated with career dissatisfaction; increasing numbers of mothers in the medical workforce may create a demand for more equitable distribution and/or outsourcing of domestic tasks," the researchers concluded.