A magnetic head includes a main pole, a write shield and a gap section. The write shield includes a trailing shield, a leading shield and two side shields. The gap section includes a trailing gap section, a leading gap section and two side gap sections. Each of the two side gap sections and the leading gap section increases in thickness with increasing distance from a medium facing surface. In the medium facing surface, the thickness of the leading gap section is greater than the width of each of the two side gap sections, and the width of each of the two side gap sections decreases with decreasing distance to the leading gap section.