‘Important… but of low status’: male education leaders’ views on gender in medicine

Risberg, Gunilla; Johansson, Eva; Hamberg, Katarina

doi:10.1111/j.1365-2923.2010.03920.x

Cited by 41 publications

(61 citation statements)

References 52 publications

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“…The minor impact and level of unawareness of gender differences, from the medical teacher’s perspective, was also found in other studies 1,3,12. A semi-structured interview study conducted with 20 male education leaders from Sweden showed that all informants regarded gender as important, but of low status 12.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 63%

“…Clinical teachers involved in clerkship programs play a key role in drawing attention to gender. Most male faculty leaders understand the importance of gender-related issues, but do not recognize gender as an area of significant knowledge and competence in medicine 12. Female clinical teachers are more likely than men to consider the physician’s gender an important element in consultation, clinical tutoring, and in interactions with colleagues 13…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Gender-based education during clerkships: a focus group study

Leerdam¹,

L²,

Teunissen³

et al. 2014

AMEP

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ObjectivesOne of the goals of the medical master’s degree is for a student to become a gender-sensitive doctor by applying knowledge of gender differences in practice. This study aims to investigate, from the students’ perspective, whether gender medicine has been taught in daily practice during clerkship.MethodsA focus group study was conducted among 29 medical students from Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands, who had just finished either their internal medicine or surgical clerkships. Data were analyzed in line with the principles of constant comparative analysis.ResultsFour focus groups were conducted with 29 participating students. Clinical teachers barely discuss gender differences during students’ clerkships. The students mentioned three main explanatory themes: insufficient knowledge; unawareness; and minor impact. As a result, students feel that they have insufficient competencies to become gender-sensitive doctors.ConclusionMedical students at our institution perceive that they have received limited exposure to gender-based education after completing two key clinical clerkships. All students feel that they have insufficient knowledge to become gender-sensitive doctors. They suppose that their clinical teachers have insufficient knowledge regarding gender sensitivity, are unaware of gender differences, and the students had the impression that gender is not regarded as an important issue. We suggest that the medical faculty should encourage clinical teachers to improve their knowledge and awareness of gender issues.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 63%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Gender-based education during clerkships: a focus group study

Leerdam¹,

L²,

Teunissen³

et al. 2014

AMEP

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…They also have worse perceptions of their academic achievement than male students [56], indicating a more critical self-perception among female students. Moreover, high academic demands in a gender-discriminatory environment during the final years of medical school [57], [58] may result in social isolation and this may explain why scores on perceptions about social relationships are lower among clerkship female students.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Empathy among Medical Students: Is There a Relation with Quality of Life and Burnout?

et al. 2014

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BackgroundWe aimed to assess medical students' empathy and its associations with gender, stage of medical school, quality of life and burnout.MethodA cross-sectional, multi-centric (22 medical schools) study that employed online, validated, self-reported questionnaires on empathy (Interpersonal Reactivity Index), quality of life (The World Health Organization Quality of Life Assessment) and burnout (the Maslach Burnout Inventory) in a random sample of medical students.ResultsOut of a total of 1,650 randomly selected students, 1,350 (81.8%) completed all of the questionnaires. Female students exhibited higher dispositional empathic concern and experienced more personal distress than their male counterparts (p<0.05; d≥0.5). There were minor differences in the empathic dispositions of students in different stages of their medical training (p<0.05; f<0.25). Female students had slightly lower scores for physical and psychological quality of life than male students (p<0.05; d<0.5). Female students scored higher on emotional exhaustion and lower on depersonalization than male students (p<0.001; d<0.5). Students in their final stage of medical school had slightly higher scores for emotional exhaustion, depersonalization and personal accomplishment (p<0.05; f<0.25). Gender (β = 0.27; p<0.001) and perspective taking (β = 0.30; p<0.001) were significant predictors of empathic concern scores. Depersonalization was associated with lower empathic concern (β = −0.18) and perspective taking (β = −0.14) (p<0.001). Personal accomplishment was associated with higher perspective taking (β = 0.21; p<0.001) and lower personal distress (β = −0.26; p<0.001) scores.ConclusionsFemale students had higher empathic concern and personal distress dispositions. The differences in the empathy scores of students in different stages of medical school were small. Among all of the studied variables, personal accomplishment held the most important association with decreasing personal distress and was also a predicting variable for perspective taking.

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“…To face discrimination was therefore surprising and induced feelings of shame and personal failure, leading the female students to often blame themselves for causing the unfair treatment instead of actively protesting such treatment. A second explanation is related to the strong ideals in medicine about objectivity and neutrality that have been shown to socialize medical students to believe that aspects like gender, as well as class, ethnicity, and sexual orientation, are, or should be, insignificant for their own working conditions [20, 39, 40]. Students’ adaptation to such ideals might explain why some of the female students had their experiences of unfair treatment questioned by their peers.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Thus, the importance of gender awareness in medical education has received attention in recent years [13–16], and many medical schools have included education about gender in their curricula [17–19]. However, such gender education has often been met with scepticism and resistance, and researchers in the field attribute this resistance to attitudes and values among students as well as teachers [16, 20]. This shows that formal curricular content must be viewed in the context of what is sometimes labelled the “hidden curriculum” [21], referring to the fact that many critical determinants of medical education do not operate within the formal curriculum, but through attitudes, values, and behaviours communicated in everyday interactions and clinical encounters.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Experiences of the gender climate in clinical training – a focus group study among Swedish medical students

et al. 2016

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BackgroundResearch shows that medical education is characterized by unequal conditions for women and men, but there is a lack of qualitative studies investigating the social processes that enable and maintain gender inequalities that include both male and female students. In this focus group study, we therefore explored male as well as female medical students’ experiences of the gender climate – i.e., how beliefs, values, and norms about gender were communicated – during clinical training and how the students dealt with these experiences.MethodsFocus group interviews were conducted with 24 medical students (nine men) at Umeå University, Sweden. The interviews were structured around personal experiences in clinical training where the participants perceived that gender had mattered. Data were analysed using qualitative content analysis.ResultsThe students described gender-stereotyped expectations, discriminatory treatment, compliments, comments, and demeaning jargon. Female students gave more personal and varied examples than the men. The students’ ways of handling their experiences were marked by efforts to fit in, for example, by adapting their appearance and partaking in the prevailing jargon. They felt dependent on supervisors and staff, and due to fear of repercussions they kept silent and avoided unpleasant situations and people rather than challenging humiliating jargon or supervisors who were behaving badly.ConclusionsEveryday communication of gender beliefs combined with students’ adaptation to stereotyped expectations and discrimination came across as fundamental features through which unequal conditions for male and female students are reproduced and maintained in the clinic. Because they are in a dependent position, it is often difficult for students to challenge problematic gender attitudes. The main responsibility for improvements, therefore, lies with medical school leadership who need to provide students and supervisors with knowledge about gendered processes, discrimination, and sexism and to organize reflection groups about the gender climate in order to improve students’ opportunities to discuss their experiences, and hopefully find ways to protest and actively demand change.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12909-016-0803-1) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

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‘Important… but of low status’: male education leaders’ views on gender in medicine

Cited by 41 publications

References 52 publications

Gender-based education during clerkships: a focus group study

Gender-based education during clerkships: a focus group study

Empathy among Medical Students: Is There a Relation with Quality of Life and Burnout?

Experiences of the gender climate in clinical training – a focus group study among Swedish medical students

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