Gender Bias

BACKGROUND: Although self-assessment is an essential component of self-directed adult learning, few data exist regarding the ability of medical students to perform this important task. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to evaluate the ability of medical students to perform self-assessment during a third-year surgery clerkship. METHODS: Sixty-eight (34 male, 34 female) third-year medical students assessed their progress at the midpoint of an 8-week surgery clerkship using an 11-item, competency-based evaluation...

CONTEXT: Gender sensitivity is a crucial factor in the provision of quality health care. This paper explores acquired gendered values and attitudes among medical students through an analysis of the hidden curriculum that exists within formal medical classes and informal learning. METHODS: Discourse analysis was adopted as the research method. Data were collected from the Bulletin Board System (BBS), which represented an essential communication platform among students in Taiwan before the era of Facebook...

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the experience of medical students during a clinical attachment in obstetrics and gynaecology (O&G). STUDY DESIGN: A questionnaire was distributed to medical students who completed their O&G posting between August 2012 and August 2013. The first part included basic demographic details (age, gender, and ethnicity) and frequency of actual clinical experience; the second part explored students' perception of their training and their relationship with other staff, in particular feeling of discrimination by specified groups of medical personnel...

CONTEXT: Applicants to US residency training programmes are required to submit a personal statement, the content of which is flexible but often requires them to describe their career goals and aspirations. Despite their importance, no systematic research has explored common themes and gender differences inherent to these statements. OBJECTIVES: This study was conducted to analyse US applicants' Electronic Residency Application Service (ERAS) personal statements using two automated textual analysis programs, and to assess for common themes and gender-associated differences...

PURPOSE: Gender bias exists in patient treatment, and, like most people, health care providers harbor gender stereotypes. In this study, the authors examined the gender stereotypes that medical students hold about patients. METHOD: In 2005, in Umeå, Sweden, the authors collected 81 narratives written by patients who had undergone cancer treatment; all information that might reveal the patients' gender was removed from the texts. Eighty-seven medical students read 40 or 41 narratives each, guessed the patient's gender, and explained their guess...

BACKGROUND: Women represent roughly 50% of US medical students and one third of US surgery residents. Within academic surgery departments, however, women are disproportionately underrepresented, particularly at senior levels. The aim of this study was to test the hypothesis that female surgeons perceive different barriers to academic careers relative to their male colleagues. METHODS: A modified version of the Career Barriers Inventory-Revised was administered to senior surgical residents and early-career surgical faculty members at 8 academic medical centers using an online survey tool...

No abstract text is available yet for this article.

For medical schools, the increasing presence of women makes it especially important that potential sources of gender bias be identified and removed from student evaluation methods. Our study looked for patterns of gender bias in adjective data used to inform our Medical Student Performance Evaluations (MSPEs). Multigroup Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) was used to model the latent structure of the adjectives attributed to students (n = 657) and to test for systematic scoring errors by gender. Gender bias was evident in two areas: (a) women were more likely than comparable men to be described as ''compassionate,'' ''sensitive,'' and ''enthusiastic'' and (b) men were more likely than comparable women to be seen as ''quick learners...

PURPOSE: To investigate the extent of gender bias in the volunteerism of small-group leaders amongst first-year medical students, and whether bias could be eliminated with special instructions to the students. METHOD: The gender of leaders in small-group sessions in a real academic setting was monitored under two conditions: control conditions, in which basic instructions were provided to participants, and intervention conditions, in which the same basic instructions were provided plus a brief "pep talk" on the importance of experiencing a leadership role in a safe environment...

During the last decades research has reported unmotivated differences in the treatment of women and men in various areas of clinical and academic medicine. There is an ongoing discussion on how to avoid such gender bias. We developed a three-step-theoretical model to understand how gender bias in medicine can occur and be understood. In this paper we present the model and discuss its usefulness in the efforts to avoid gender bias. In the model gender bias is analysed in relation to assumptions concerning difference/sameness and equity/inequity between women and men...

OBJECTIVES: To assess attitudes of medical students toward issues of racial diversity and gender equality and to ascertain changes in these attitudes during the pre-clinical curriculum. METHODS: Attitudes toward multiculturalism and gender equality were assessed using a 43-item questionnaire. The survey was completed by incoming Year 1 students in 2000 and 2001, and was completed again in 2002 by the students who had entered in 2000. Mean scores were analysed at baseline by gender, ethnic group and political affiliation using analysis of variance...

This study examined barriers and biases in the medical education experience by surveying fourth-year medical students. There were 270 female and 288 male respondents; their racial background was: 21% Asian, 13% underrepresented minorities, and 66% white. Women reported that the careers they were encouraged to pursue were affected by their gender (44% versus 15%) and they were often mistaken for a nonphysician (92% versus 3%). More importantly, women reported that the lack of a mentor of either gender as a large barrier (27% versus 19%)...

No abstract text is available yet for this article.