BACKGROUND: There is little information on gender related problems in medicine from a point of view of the male anesthesiologists. METHODS: A questionnaire was sent in January 2001 to 300 male anesthesiologists. The questionnaire asked for information on personal and professional demographics, gender inequity, and family responsibility. RESULTS: Of the 186 responding male anesthesiologists (62.0% response rate), 62.4% of them felt a gender inequity. They felt a gender inequity the most in family responsibility (40% of them). In contrast, those who felt a gender inequity in working ability and promotion were small in number (4.1%, 14.1%, respectively). More than 80% of male anesthesiologists agreed on the need of consideration about night-duty for the female anesthesiologists. On the other hand, 66.7% of them felt that taking place of the female anesthesiologists was a burden on them. CONCLUSIONS: More than half of male anesthesiologists felt a gender inequity especially in family responsibility. In addition, it is impressive that most of male anesthesiologists were unaware of gender inequity in promotion in face of the fact that the number of the female professors was very small. Systemic effort is required to grapple with gender inequity problems to change the social organization in the field of medicine.