http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-class31dec31,1,4825460.story

Recent LA Times Article, Thoughts?

IN THE CLASSROOM
More Women Seeing a Healthy Future in Medicine
For the first time, more than half of U.S. medical school applicants are female. Many are drawn by flexible hours that allow time for family.

Kirsten Mewaldt's sense of idealism prodded her to apply to medical school. She sees practicing medicine as a way to serve humanity.

But Mewaldt, like many other women, also sees a big practical benefit to becoming a physician: With the changes in the profession in recent years, it has increasingly become an attractive career for someone who wants to balance work with raising children.

One of the things that's great about medicine is the flexibility," said Mewaldt, a second-year medical student at USC, offering an opinion that defies the traditional reputation of a profession with little time for family life.

"I'm considering going into emergency medicine, and that has a wonderful lifestyle if you're considering having a family," she said. "You can do three 12-hour shifts a week, and then you're not on call. You're done. You can be home with your kids, pick them up from school and actually be around."