Introduction. In the context of rapid trends of feminization in the Lithuanian academic community, the field of medical sciences is rather an interesting case in terms of gender distribution. That is, women are the majority among practicing physicians in Lithuania and, as the aggregated statistical data demonstrate, women composed more than half of all the researchers with a scientific degree or academic title in the field in mid 2000s. However, detailed analysis of newly acquired scientific degrees in the field evidences that the number of women who acquired a degree in medical sciences outgrew the corresponding number of men only after 2000. Thus, it is the personal women’s experiences lurking behind these numbers that are the focal issues of the paper.

Materials and methods. The paper is based on the materials of sociological research project Women Physicians in Post-communist Society, which was based on a series (N = 36) of semi-structured interviews with Lithuanian physicians in winter–spring 2005. Materials of only 7 interviews with women physician-scientists were selected for analysis in the paper (other 14 interviewed women-physicians had no degrees in science). The thematic discourse analysis was conducted using inductive research strategy and basing on the principal assumptions of discourse analysis.

Results. Analysis of the interviews with women physician-scientists revealed three general patterns of women’s behaviour in professional medical establishments. They are as follows: extremely hard work and selfless devotion to work hoping that someone will recognize her efforts; absolute reliance upon a person, who has higher credentials; retreat from the field of professional competition using stereotypical feminine argumentation.

Conclusions. Women physician-scientists’ career strategies are not identical, but rather similar to the ones which are used by women in other fields of science or professional activity in Lithuania as well as in other societies. The main conclusion is that, even recognizing the necessity to continue abyssal investigations of the phenomena, the recovered aspects of dominant gender order in the field of medical practice and research are supplementary features of institutions which “were created for and by men”.

Keywords: gender, women, career strategy, medical sciences