• Terry D Stratton, Margaret A McLaughlin, Florence M Witte, Sue E Fosson, and Lois Margaret Nora.
• Student Assessment & Program Evaluation, Office of Academic Affairs, University of Kentucky College of Medicine, MN104 Medical Science Building, Lexington, KY 40536-0298, USA. tdstra00@uky.edu
• Acad Med. 2005 Apr 1;80(4):400-8.

PurposeTo examine the role of gender discrimination and sexual harassment in medical students' choice of specialty and residency program.MethodAnonymous, self-administered questionnaires were distributed in 1997 to fourth-year students enrolled in 14 public and private U.S. medical schools. In addition to reporting the frequency of gender discrimination and sexual harassment encountered during preclinical coursework, core clerkships, elective clerkships, and residency selection, students assessed the impact of these exposures (none, a little, some, quite a bit, the deciding factor) on their specialty choices and rankings of residency programs.ResultsA total of 1,314 (69%) useable questionnaires were returned. Large percentages of men (83.2%) and women (92.8%) experienced, observed, or heard about at least one incident of gender discrimination and sexual harassment during medical school, although more women reported such behavior across all training contexts. Compared with men, significantly (p ConclusionThis study suggests that exposure to gender discrimination and sexual harassment during undergraduate education may influence some medical students' choice of specialty and, to a lesser degree, ranking of residency programs.

22 keywords...

hide…