Abstract
This article explores inequality regimes in medicine, examining structures that create social closure and explaining (racio-ethnic minority) women's under-representation at senior levels and in high-status specialties. We juxtapose this with agency to evidence how inequality regimes are experienced and navigated through accommodatory usurpation and everyday resistance. Drawing on 26 interviews with women of varying racio-ethnicities, findings illustrate deeply-embedded inequality regimes that maintained white, male norms; individual agency did not change these meaning women could progress only where they could comply with them. We contribute to understanding of inequality in medicine, where women's experiences remain under-researched. We also contribute to inequalities theory and understanding of change in offering a rare juxtaposition of structural inequality with individual agency to evidence the latter's limitations. We argue that collective agency is needed to create radical change and enable women's progression. Practically, we argue for collective organisational change driven, potentially, by coalition building.