Doing Gender, Doing Surgery: Women Surgeons in a Man's Profession

Cassell, Joan

doi:10.17730/humo.56.1.2362n66w4522428h

Cited by 36 publications

(46 citation statements)

References 6 publications

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“…Gender is not a fixed or 'natural' category, but subject to change and negotiation. We all "do gender" in all kinds of social interactions [2-4]. …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For example when they ask female patients more than male patients about their family situation [5] physicians contribute to maintain the gendered view that family matters are women's issues. Physicians do gender not only in their relation with patients [3], but also with colleagues [4], staff [4,6], and as role models for students. Physicians with an awareness of gender take into consideration power asymmetry and gendered expectations and preconceptions in such interactions.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Gender awareness among physicians – the effect of specialty and gender. A study of teachers at a Swedish medical school

2003

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BackgroundAn important goal for medical education today is professional development including gender equality and awareness of gender issues. Are medical teachers prepared for this task? We investigated gender awareness among physician teachers, expressed as their attitudes towards the role of gender in professional relationships, and how it varied with physician gender and specialty. We discuss how this might be related to the gender climate and sex segregation in different specialties.MethodQuestionnaires were sent to all 468 specialists in the clinical departments and in family medicine, who were engaged in educating medical students at a Swedish university. They were asked to rate, on visual analogue scales, the importance of physician and patient gender in consultation, of preceptor and student gender in clinical tutoring and of physician gender in other professional encounters. Differences between family physicians, surgical, and non-surgical hospital doctors, and between women and men were estimated by chi-2 tests and multivariate logistic regression analyses.ResultsThe response rate was 65 %. There were differences between specialty groups in all investigated areas mainly due to disparities among men. The odds for a male family physician to assess gender important were three times higher, and for a male non-surgical doctor two times higher when compared to a male surgical doctor. Female teachers assessed gender important to a higher degree than men. Among women there were no significant differences between specialty groups.ConclusionsThere was an interaction between physician teachers' gender and specialty as to whether they identified gender as important in professional relationships. Male physicians, especially from the surgical group, assessed gender important to a significantly lower degree than female physicians. Physicians' degree of gender awareness may, as one of many factors, affect working climate and the distribution of women and men in different specialties. Therefore, to improve working climate and reduce segregation we suggest efforts to increase gender awareness among physicians, for example educational programs where continuous reflections about gender attitudes are encouraged.

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“…Gender is not a fixed or 'natural' category, but subject to change and negotiation. We all "do gender" in all kinds of social interactions [2-4]. …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Gender awareness among physicians – the effect of specialty and gender. A study of teachers at a Swedish medical school

2003

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“…It can be difficult to appreciate the magnitude of influence of social factors, but social scientists recognize and attempt to account for their important contribution when measuring self-efficacy. Interesting observations about the culture of surgery reported by anthropologists and a variety of social scientists [26][27][28] may help us understand that the ways we relate to one another has powerful influence on the surgeons we ultimately become.…”

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confidence: 99%

Confidence Crisis Among General Surgery Residents

Elfenbein

2016

JAMA Surg

121

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Importance: In the surgical community, there is concern that general surgery residents are choosing subspecialty training in large numbers because of a crisis in confidence at the end of training. Survey studies are used as evidence to support modifications in the training paradigm.Objectives: Confidence is an essential quality of surgeons, and recent studies have attempted to quantify and measure it in graduating general surgery residents. This study was undertaken to systematically review the quality of evidence provided, and to critically analyze the language used to describe the findings using quantitative methods..Evidence Review: A systematic review of the PubMed indexed literature on general surgery resident confidence was performed. A summative table of each study's hypothesis, definition of confidence, quality using MERSQI, influence using Web of Science citations, results and conclusions was created, and qualitative coding was applied to identify emerging themes. Conclusions and Relevance: Confidence is difficult to define and measure. Despite limitations, survey studies are used to shape discourse and influence policies. Social and cultural factors influence selfefficacy, and focusing on operative volume and autonomy alone may not address all of the reasons that some residents express concerns about readiness to practice.

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“…According to our informants, dental nurses assisted male students more willingly and showed a greater degree of acceptance when they were less orderly than they did with female students. This pattern can be found in other medical settings (Cassell, 1997;Davies, 2001;Eriksson, 2003), which implies that there is a half step, between nurse and dentist, on the hierarchical ladder that is only for women. It is possible to argue that members of the staff exercise their power to keep female students in a subordinate position where they are expected to be rule obeying and facilitate or even perform the nurses' tasks, while male students are allowed to disobey rules, increase nurses' workburden and receive the assistance traditionally given to male dentists.…”

Section: Ambiguity Blurring and Gender-power Relationsmentioning

confidence: 73%

“…Studies on the relation between medical doctors and nurses suggest that female doctors are expected to adhere to male professional norms in order to gain respect and female gender norms to gain social acceptance, which can lead to a situation where the interaction and communication between doctors and nurses is characterised by conflicting demands (e.g. Cassell, 1997;Davies, 2001;Eriksson, 2003).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Shared Ambiguity but Different Experiences and Demands among Dental Students — A Gender Perspective

Schéle

Hedman

Hammarström

2011

Qualitative Research in Psychology

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Shared ambiguity but different experiences and demands among dental students -a gender perspective AbstractThis study explores how dental students experience their clinical semesters from a gender perspective. Twelve students (seven women and five men) and three teachers (two women and one man) at the Umeå dentistry programme participated in semistructured interviews that were analysed with Grounded Theory methodology.The model we propose consists of the core category Experiencing ambiguity and the three categories Experiencing pressure and stress, Assessing your own performance, and Passing through the eye of the needle and also includes four subcategories. At the core of our findings lies ambiguity, captured in the student dilemmas What's enough/When's enough. The answers to these dilemmas are further complicated by the gendered dimension and the dimension of unequal treatment, which provide students with different and contradicting sets of rules and roles. A comparison with recent findings from the U.S. shows that their experiences are not unique.Our Experiencing ambiguity model constitutes a platform for future research on how students experience clinical education, as well as potential predictors and consequences in relation to performance and well-being.

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Doing Gender, Doing Surgery: Women Surgeons in a Man's Profession

Cited by 36 publications

References 6 publications

Gender awareness among physicians – the effect of specialty and gender. A study of teachers at a Swedish medical school

Gender awareness among physicians – the effect of specialty and gender. A study of teachers at a Swedish medical school

Confidence Crisis Among General Surgery Residents

Shared Ambiguity but Different Experiences and Demands among Dental Students — A Gender Perspective

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