Women and ethnic minorities now in the majority and evidence shows diversity benefits patient outcomes

• Female doctors outnumber male peers in UK for first time

Since Elizabeth Garrett Anderson became the first woman in Britain to qualify to practise medicine in 1865, it has been a long road to gender parity. Now, for the first time, female doctors outnumber their male counterparts in the UK, according to figures from the General Medical Council, which also reveal that black and minority ethnic doctors are now in the majority.

The shift in demographics is welcome, not least in a profession that has frequently fallen short of meeting the needs of female and minority ethnic patients. There have been a series of scandals in women’s health, from failing maternity units to harm caused by vaginal mesh and the anti-epilepsy drug sodium valproate.