Despite the fact up to 80 per cent of those trained as doctors in recent years are women, only 38 per cent of new consultant posts went to women last year, the IMO conference was told at the weekend.
However, plans for a more consultant-provided service in the future under health service reform should give women the opportunity to break through the 'glass ceiling', according to Trinity College sociologist, Dr Evelyn Mahon.
Dr Mahon said restructuring also presented an opportunity to tackle work/life balance issues, which have to be addressed in order to avoid a critical shortage of doctors in the future.
Arrangements would have to be made for more flexible career structures if many doctors were not going to be lost to the profession, she added.
Dr Mahon pointed out that surveys were now showing that more than a third of women doctors wouldn't choose medicine if they had their time over again.
It showed many men wouldn't either. The IMO benchmark study found 36 per cent of women and 29 per cent of men would not opt for the career if they were starting out again.
"So a third of those in medicine presently would not choose medicine as a career again. This must be seen a major indicator that all is not well for either men or women.
"Given the importance of health in all our lives, this can be constructed as a crisis and will lead to a shortage of doctors," she said.
A UK study which investigated why doctors regretted becoming doctors found that one fifth of women who regretted the decision did so because of difficulties their working patterns presented, Dr Mahon added.
She said the European Working Time Directive, under which the working hours of junior doctors will have to be cut to 58 hours a week by August next, presented an opportunity for the profession to restructure itself to become a doctor-friendly healthy one.
It was quite extraordinary that there was any controversy or delay about reducing doctors' hours to comply with the directive, she said.
"This is still a very long working week. The higher professions such as medicine and law tolerate working practices that would be illegal for lorry drivers or factory workers. They also exploit junior/trainee staff," she said.
However, Limerick-based GP Dr Mary Gray said studies had shown it was very rare for women to drop out of the profession.
These women, though, were found to spend less time on cooking and general housework than other working women, she said.
Nonetheless, she stressed that proper manpower planning had to reflect the work/life choices of a new generation of Irish doctors.
"Formal part-time or job sharing options do not exist within the GMS contract for GPs or within GP training schemes as yet and are urgently needed," she said.
Furthermore, she said workplaces will have to adapt to women's work/life priorities if they are to capitalise on the talents and expertise of women doctors, rather than thinking that women themselves need to find ways of adapting to the demands of the workplace.