When Dr. Anne Doig studied medicine in Saskatchewan 35 years ago, only about a third of her classmates were women.

Now, family doctors like her outnumber their male colleagues for the first time in Canada.

For Doig and those who've been tracking the white coat gender balance, the new data from the Canadian Medical Association show a clear trend that's set to continue.

As of January, there were 239 more women than men certified to practice family medicine -- a telling shift, although female doctors are still woefully underrepresented in many other specialties.

The number of female physicians and medical students has been steadily rising over the years. First-year medical school classes across Canada have been registering more women than men since 1997.

Even though 64 per cent of all active Canadian doctors are male, the fact that women now make up more than half of the largest medical specialty in Canada -- family practice -- is significant, the CMA says.

"We are witnessing a demographic transformation of what used to be a very male-dominated profession," CMA President John Haggie said in a recent article posted on the association's website. "A decade ago men outnumbered women in every specialty."

Now, seeing female physicians in various roles is "a fact of life" that reflects general societal trends, said Doig, who runs a practice and teaches medicine in Saskatoon.

Surgical specialties like neurosurgery, urology and orthopedics are still male domains, but women are making strides elsewhere.

They now account for nearly half of all Canadian obstetricians and gynecologists and outnumber men in geriatric medicine and pediatrics.

What's more, the CMA projects women will account for more than 45 per cent of Canadian doctors by 2025.

"It's certainly a positive...and it's been happening for years," Doig said in a phone interview with CTVNews.ca.

This growing cohort is also younger: more than two thirds of family doctors under age 35 are female.

Female physicians are also taking on more leadership roles in their communities, as well as on provincial and national levels. In August, Yellowknife emergency room doctor Anna Reid will become the third female president of the CMA since 2005. In the first 137 years of the organization's existence, only three other women held that role.

"It's an amazing feat," said Dr. Unjali Malhotra, a Vancouver family physician who specializes in women's health.

"There are a lot of women who want women (to treat them) and this really helps us with community care outreach," Malhotra told CTVNews.ca.

As a member of the Federation of Medical Women in Canada, Malhotra said the shift "creates a lot positive role models" for rookie doctors and girls considering a career in medicine.

"It's great to have that sisterhood for support," she said.

But changing demographics don't necessarily transform a patient's experience at the doctor's office, Doig said.

"I don't believe that the quality of being an excellent physician is tied to one gender or the other," she said. "There is a stereotype out there that a female doctor will spend more time with you, or be more compassionate. That's not true."

Malhotra agreed that there are a lot of "overgeneralizations" about a woman's bedside manner. Still, if a patient feels more comfortable with a female doctor, that could make a world of difference, she said.

In Doig's view, the biggest barriers to career advancements are now individual, not gender-based.

"And that's a good thing," she said.