Gender Roles, Medical Practice Roles, and Ob-Gyn Career Choice

Abstract

This paper discusses follow-up data from physicians who were studied ten years earlier when they were medical students. Seventeen physicians were practicing ob-gyn, and 57 of the physicians studied had been interested in an ob-gyn career when they were medical students. At Time 1, women were more likely than men to be strongly interested in ob-gyn, but they were no more likely than men to be ob-gyn physicians at Time 2. The desire to have a surgical specialty was much more important to men than to women practitioners. Men ob-gyn practitioners were significantly more traditional in their sex-role outlook as medical students than were either women practitioners or women who had been strongly interested in the field but did not enter it. The data suggest that women ob-gyn physicians are more likely than their male peers to be egalitarian in their relationships with female patients.

Gender and the Body of Medicine or at Least Some Body Parts: (Re)Constructing the Prestige Hierarchy of Medical Specialties

“…Residents were quicker to describe a top and bottom and tended to lump together specialties in the middle levels (especially level 4). Similar prestige rankings have been reported over time and across sites (Cassell 1998;Kutner and Brogin 1990;Matteson and Smith 1977;Merton, Bloom, and Rogoff 1956;Zimet and Held 1975), indicating that the hierarchy described by Southern residents is fairly standard. Interestingly, there is not a perfect correspondence between income and prestige.…”

“…In this vein, women's choices are seen as personal choices contingent on familial responsibilities. * Another body of evidence supports the notion that specialty choices'of women physicians are contingent on the desire for more active patient-participants and for less invasive, less technological, and more holistic approaches to medicine and patients (Hinze 1 995).3 Studies in this vein, which I term the "cultural feminist perspective," emphasize the possibility of women's distinct values as determinants of choice (Davidson 1979;Kutner and Brogin 1990;Leserman 1981;Schobot, Cayley, and Eliason 1996). Finally, a more critical structural perspective, termed the "liberal feminist perspective," holds that women have experi-enced tracking, discrimination, and constraints (Lorber 1984;Quadagno 1976).…”

Co-assistentschappen als inwijding in de medische beroepscultuur : gender in de socialisatie tot arts

“…Ook vrouwelijk artsen die zieh als huisarts wilden vestigen, ondervonden last van deze code, zeker toen ziekenfondsen eisten dat elk gezin slechts een huisarts mocht hebben. Uitsluitingsmechamsmen en hindernissen voor vrouwelijke artsen zijn beschreven voor veel Westerse landen als de Verenigde Staten, Engeland, Duitsland (Lorber, 1984(Lorber, & 1993Levinson, 1989;Kutner, 1990;Nadelson, 1991;Eiston, 1993;Bowman & Allen, 1991;etc). Hoewel de weerstand in Nederland minder gemakkelijk te onderkennen was, was deze in die zin effectief dat tot vlak na de tweede wereldoorlog het aandeel van vrouwelijke artsen in Nederland lager dan 10% was (Bosch, 1994) en tot 1980 beperkt bleef tot onder de 20% (Hermann, 1984).…”

“…Ook de relatie tussen arts en patient in principieel ongelijk in macht, de arts beschikt over kennis die de patient denkt nodig te hebben voor het oplossen of hinteren van diens gezondheidsprobleem. Over de monier van omgaan met deze ongelijkheid in de arts-patient relatie van vrouwelijke en mannelijke artsen en de impact hiervan op de kwaliteit van de communicatie en van de medische zorg is de afgelopen veel nagedacht en geschreven (Baart en Baerveldt, 1986;Bensing, 1991;Davis, 1988;Kutner, 1990, Philipsen, 1988, Rouneau, 1987. Mizrahi (1984) constateert dat de codes voor getoensf ro/g«frag t**n artsen m mrenicrie mrt /wrimren gebaseerd zijn op het beeld van de arts als kennisexpert en als morele autoriteit.…”