Medical students’ self-reported gender discrimination and sexual harassment over time

Abstract

Background Gender discrimination (GD) and sexual harassment (SH) occur at all academic institutions worldwide. Medical students report high prevalence of GD and SH, which may negatively affect their education and health. There are indications that policies and reforms on reducing GD/SH are insufficient. Swedish medical students’ experiences of GD/SH are monitored by course-evaluations and bi-annual student union evaluations; however, the response rate is usually low. The aim of this study was to compare the exposure to and context of self-reported GD/SH over an 11-year period amongst medical students at a Swedish university. Methods In 2002, a questionnaire (n = 622) was mailed to medical students’ home addresses. It was repeated in 2013 and then distributed during mandatory lectures (n = 856). The questions used a behavioristic approach and asked about specific GH/SH experiences. Participation was voluntary and anonymous. The changes in prevalence over time were calculated by sampling weights in order to obtain comparable estimates, representative of both cohorts. Results The response frequency was 55% (62% women) in 2002 and 81% (59% women) in 2013. The prevalence of GD tended to decrease for male and clinical students in comparison to female and pre-clinical peers. However, the prevalence of SH increased for female compared to male students. The ratio of SH for female pre-clinical students doubled in many instances; most often, the mistreatment occurred in the clinic. Medical doctors were indicated as perpetrators up to five times more often by all students in 2013. Conclusion Our results show a disproportional change in exposure to GD/SH between female and male medical students, resulting in a widening of the gender gap regarding prevalence of GD and SH between 2002 and 2013. In particular, personal experiences of SH increased for both sexes. It is proof that institutional efforts to fight mistreatment might be ineffective.

EFL Female Teachers' and Students' Experiences of Gender Discrimination in Rural Nepali Schools

“…These comments showed how schools had become a place for gender-based harassment and the concerned authorities were found ignoring their responsibilities to prevent such activities. This is similar to the findings Kisiel et al (2020) who compared that found that the ratio of gender discrimination and sexual harassment sharply increased for female compared to male students in Swedish schools. Similarly, due to regular gender-based harassment at schools, I found some girls increased their irregularity and decreased their learning achievement.…”

Security and Violence Perception of Medical Interns during Social Service Practice in Mexico

“…These results match those reported by previous research, which alludes to the high rates of sexual harassment in medical students. It is considered that the dependence of medical students on their supervisors, particularly women medical students, is a risk factor for sexual harassment and gender discrimination, which promotes exposure to abuse during medical training [ 26 , 27 , 28 , 29 ].…”

“Why bother?”: Barriers to reporting gender and sexual harassment in emergency medicine

“…Questions explored participants' familiarity with reporting systems, experience using reporting systems, barriers to utilizing reporting systems (both personally experienced and experienced by colleagues), perceptions of departmental support of reporting processes, and potential improvements to reporting systems. The interview guide was informed by the study team's experiences as women EM physicians (all study team members are women, representing women residents, junior faculty, and midcareer faculty) and incorporated existing evidence from literature related to the topic of gender and sexual harassment 1–6,8–11,14,15 . Prior to the study, the interview guide was piloted with EM residents and faculty, both men and women, and refined to verify that questions were appropriately understood by participants.…”

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Gender and sexual harassment in academic medicine is persistent and pervasive. [1][2][3] Six in 10 medical trainees reported sexual harassment or discrimination during their training; within emergency medicine (EM), over half (53%) of women faculty and one in four (26%) men faculty have experienced some form of gender or sexual harassment in their workplace. 4,5 Gender and sexual harassment in clinical settings has severe adverse consequences for both survivors and health systems.

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