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Gender beliefs in medical students
EJINME-03485; No of Pages 1 European Journal of Internal Medicine xxx (2017) xxx
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
European Journal of Internal Medicine journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ejim
Letter to the Editor Gender beliefs in medical students Keywords: Gender Male Female Physician Medical education
2015 the Lancet Commission Women and Health stated the important role of women in health care [1]. Following that the UN launched it's ‘Global Strategy for Women's, Children's and Adolescent's health, 2016–2030’ program which delivers $25 billion in the next five years for their wellbeing [2]. Even if 70% of Medical Students are women, women's health is often a neglected subject in medical education. Predictively female dominant profession in the future has to react to the fact that currently women are underrepresented in learning about their health but also in their professional careers [3]. The initiatives and studies mentioned beforehand encouraged us to look closer into the issue, its reasoning and report our findings. It was reported that roughly 30% in High Income Countries (HIC) and 57% in Low and Middle Income Countries (LMIC) of students are educated in topics relating women's and children's health in LMIC [4]. The Lancet Commission on Women and Health statement that the undervaluing of women's contribution creates a glass-ceiling which stops women from achieving leadership positions [1]. In an informal survey we randomly selected medical students from across Europe if they think that female physicians are undervalued in European society – in terms of “Who is the better physician?” 133 participants conducted the survey. While in the group of NonMedical Students female participants nearly reached balance (46.15% vs. 53.85%), male participants agreed with 66.67% that male physicians are better physicians. Most interestingly the group of Medical Students answered the other way around, so 70.73% of female participants stated that women are better physicians, while men reached perfect balance (50% vs. 50%). 33.01% have ignored answer regulations and ticked female and male, which we presumed was the way to express their opinion of equality.
10 out of 44 added additional comments in writing (comments were not anticipated) depicted outrage about the simple nature of such question even being asked. From our experiment we may confirm that medical students just as people not related to medicine follow gender specific values in their minds. It is worthy to note that many students refused to answer our survey, indicating that there is no question who could be a better physician based on gender. This snapshot exercise investigation raised outcomes which encourage us to continue with more thorough research in sex and gender perception and its impact on medical students' beliefs and their future career practices.
Declaration of competing interests Both authors have no competing interests to disclose.
References [1] Langer A, Meleis A, Knaul FM, et al. Women and health. The key for sustainable development. Lancet 2015;386:1165–210. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S01406736(15)60497-4. [2] Fassihian G. UN secretary-general announces $25 billion in initial commitments to end preventable deaths of women, children and adolescents by 2030; 2015. [3] Keiser J, Utzinger J, Singer BH. Gender composition of editorial boards of general medical journals. Lancet 2003;362:1336. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S01406736(03)14607-7. [4] Göpfert A, Mohamedbhai H, Mise J, et al. Do medical students want to learn about global health? Glob Health Action 2014;7:23943. http://dx.doi.org/10.3402/gha.v7. 23943.
Benedikt W. Pelzer* Kristina Mickevičiūtė European Medical Students' Association, Brussels, Belgium *Corresponding author at: European Medical Students' Association, Dept. for Internal Affairs, Rue Guimard 15, B-1040 Brussels, Belgium. E-mail addresses: [email protected] (B.W. Pelzer). [email protected] (K. Mickevičiūtė). 19 February 2017 Available online xxxx
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ejim.2017.02.021 0953-6205/© 2017 European Federation of Internal Medicine. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Please cite this article as: Pelzer BW, Mickevičiūtė K, Gender beliefs in medical students, Eur J Intern Med (2017), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/ j.ejim.2017.02.021
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
European Journal of Internal Medicine journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ejim
Letter to the Editor Gender beliefs in medical students Keywords: Gender Male Female Physician Medical education
2015 the Lancet Commission Women and Health stated the important role of women in health care [1]. Following that the UN launched it's ‘Global Strategy for Women's, Children's and Adolescent's health, 2016–2030’ program which delivers $25 billion in the next five years for their wellbeing [2]. Even if 70% of Medical Students are women, women's health is often a neglected subject in medical education. Predictively female dominant profession in the future has to react to the fact that currently women are underrepresented in learning about their health but also in their professional careers [3]. The initiatives and studies mentioned beforehand encouraged us to look closer into the issue, its reasoning and report our findings. It was reported that roughly 30% in High Income Countries (HIC) and 57% in Low and Middle Income Countries (LMIC) of students are educated in topics relating women's and children's health in LMIC [4]. The Lancet Commission on Women and Health statement that the undervaluing of women's contribution creates a glass-ceiling which stops women from achieving leadership positions [1]. In an informal survey we randomly selected medical students from across Europe if they think that female physicians are undervalued in European society – in terms of “Who is the better physician?” 133 participants conducted the survey. While in the group of NonMedical Students female participants nearly reached balance (46.15% vs. 53.85%), male participants agreed with 66.67% that male physicians are better physicians. Most interestingly the group of Medical Students answered the other way around, so 70.73% of female participants stated that women are better physicians, while men reached perfect balance (50% vs. 50%). 33.01% have ignored answer regulations and ticked female and male, which we presumed was the way to express their opinion of equality.
10 out of 44 added additional comments in writing (comments were not anticipated) depicted outrage about the simple nature of such question even being asked. From our experiment we may confirm that medical students just as people not related to medicine follow gender specific values in their minds. It is worthy to note that many students refused to answer our survey, indicating that there is no question who could be a better physician based on gender. This snapshot exercise investigation raised outcomes which encourage us to continue with more thorough research in sex and gender perception and its impact on medical students' beliefs and their future career practices.
Declaration of competing interests Both authors have no competing interests to disclose.
References [1] Langer A, Meleis A, Knaul FM, et al. Women and health. The key for sustainable development. Lancet 2015;386:1165–210. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S01406736(15)60497-4. [2] Fassihian G. UN secretary-general announces $25 billion in initial commitments to end preventable deaths of women, children and adolescents by 2030; 2015. [3] Keiser J, Utzinger J, Singer BH. Gender composition of editorial boards of general medical journals. Lancet 2003;362:1336. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S01406736(03)14607-7. [4] Göpfert A, Mohamedbhai H, Mise J, et al. Do medical students want to learn about global health? Glob Health Action 2014;7:23943. http://dx.doi.org/10.3402/gha.v7. 23943.
Benedikt W. Pelzer* Kristina Mickevičiūtė European Medical Students' Association, Brussels, Belgium *Corresponding author at: European Medical Students' Association, Dept. for Internal Affairs, Rue Guimard 15, B-1040 Brussels, Belgium. E-mail addresses: [email protected] (B.W. Pelzer). [email protected] (K. Mickevičiūtė). 19 February 2017 Available online xxxx
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ejim.2017.02.021 0953-6205/© 2017 European Federation of Internal Medicine. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Please cite this article as: Pelzer BW, Mickevičiūtė K, Gender beliefs in medical students, Eur J Intern Med (2017), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/ j.ejim.2017.02.021