Numbers do not tell the whole story: Gender and medicine in Portugal

Abstract

Despite a progressive increase in the number of women in medicine, gender inequalities remain. This article presents a study analyzing the gender dynamics of tokenism in the medical field in Portugal, through the experiences of male specialists in female areas and female specialists in male areas and through their strategies for coping with such situations.We conducted individual, semi-structured interviews with nine female doctors and eight male doctors aged between 32 and 62 years old. Results show the links between tokenism dynamics and gender asymmetry in medicine, putting female tokens at a disadvantage in relation to male tokens. Token positions occasionally produce gender arrangements but, all things considered, do not transform female and male positions either in the medical field or in the private sphere. We conclude that tokenism contributes to maintaining the gender social order.

Steps to improve gender diversity in coastal geoscience and engineering

“…Overall, our results consolidate the perception of CGE as a field where merit is gendered and, therefore, we can apply the theoretical frameworks developed by Yoder (1991), Santos et al (2015) and Baumann (2017), among others. Women in CGE are perceived as tokens of lower social category (sensu Acker, 1990) and, therefore, undergo the consequences of tokenism as described by Kanter (1977), including greater visibility and performance pressures, isolation due to polarisation, and stereotyping because of assimilation.…”

“…We present and discuss our results from a gender perspective, under the theoretical framework of tokenism and gendered organisations. CGE is a markedly masculine field where "token women" are continued to be perceived as "foreigners", and merit is gendered in CGE in the same way as demonstrated for medicine by Santos et al (2015). We analyse well-known gender phenomena such as the "glass ceiling", the "maternal wall", "gender stereotyping", "boys club" and microagressions.…”

Experiences et strategies de femmes investies dans un “monde d’hommes”: le cas de la politique locale portugaise

“…Notamment, les dynamiques du tokenism qu'elle a mises au jour ne prennent véritablement leur sens qu'à la condition de prendre en compte que les individus qu'elle analyse sont des femmes et de replacer ces dynamiques dans les rapports de genre (Yoder, 1994). La relation hiérarchique entre les deux catégories de sexe détermine en effet la nature des expériences que font les tokens et, par exemple, leur mobilité professionnelle: les hommes sont généralement favorisés par un "escalier roulant ascendant" (Williams, 1995) lorsqu'ils s'investissent dans un groupe professionnel féminin, comme dans certains secteures de la médecine où les femmes sont désormais en nette majorité (Santos, Amâncio et Roux, 2015), tandis que celles-ci se heurtent à un "plafond de verre" qui les maintient écartées des postes de pouvoir dans les métiers masculins (e.g., Cognard-Black, 2004;Floge et Merrill, 1986;Heikes, 1991;Ott, 1989), y compris dans le domaine politique (e.g., Bereni et al, 2011).…”

Gender dynamics in elementary school teaching: The advantages of men

“…As a result of symbolic asymmetry, token men are better placed than token women and therefore correspondingly experience fewer negative outcomes and gain greater advantages. Two studies carried out in Portugal within the scope of the same research project, with female politicians (Santos et al, 2016) and female and male medical specialists in 'masculine' and 'feminine' specialist fields, respectively (Santos et al, 2015), conclude that tokenism contributes to maintaining the gender social order (Connell, 2002). Such an order, which the gender symbolic asymmetry model defines as based on male individuation and female de-individuation in relation to a common system of values (Amâncio, 1993(Amâncio, , 1996(Amâncio, , 1997 that divides gender categories between men -as a universal point of reference -and women -as a gendered category limited to family care, education and the domestic sphere -gets reproduced in tokenism to the advantage of token men.…”