My neighbor's son graduated from Texas with a 3.98 in Neuroscience, scored Top 5% on his MCAT, and has over a thousand hours of volunteer and shadowing work at hospitals and was denied at every Med School except Texas Tech he applied to. Tremendous kid who is incredibly polite and friendly, just a great human. He's an Asian male. I'm sure it's a coincidence.
Part of the problem of course is some of the best qualified women don't want to be Doctors. Have a buddy who has a daughter that is brilliant with a tremendous resume but she is going to graduate at the top of her class as a Nurse Practitioner instead. Why? She knows that being a Doctor puts her into her 30's before she is done with Residency and then involves tremendous sacrifices after that. She wants to have kids and a life. There are a lot of women like that because of this strange phenomenon called "biology" that men and women are different.
I can't imagine how difficult it has to be for a woman to be a doctor, especially a surgeon or similar specialty that takes at least 5 years of Residency, and doesn't have to make severe compromises on motherhood or for many even being able to have a family. Women's bodies are literally designed with a major focus on pregnancy and feeding young children. Denying that to them is not a path to happiness for most and even among women who choose to forgo it they often end up with deep regret.
I did have a long conversation with a Doctor friend of mine who is on the other side of this to an extent. The main reason he gave is that women are much more likely to open up and relate with a female doctor instead of a male doctor and that studies have shown that. I understand where he is going but competence must be the barometer else we destroy the system.
"The most terrifying words in the English language are: I'm from the government and I'm here to help."
Ronald Reagan
