Tornar-se cirurgiã no Brasil

Abstract

The aim of this thesis is to promote a greater understanding on the process of constructing the medical identity in conjunction to the "gender socialization" which interiorizes provisions regarding professional aspirations and the choice of a medical specialty among women who graduated from medical school in Brazil. The efforts of this project were mainly focused on the training trajectory of women residents and surgeons that occupy statistically unlikely positions for women. At the same time, the reasons behind the choices that make many women medical doctors abstain from surgical careers were addressed. Grounded in studies that seek to understand the determinants of action in the construction of individual dispositions, this project is articulated on a triple methodological approach: (i) interviews with women medical students, residents and surgeons in different hierarchy levels of the training process and professional insertion; (ii) ethnographic observation in academic hospitals where several women residents and surgery faculty were followed in different areas of the training process; (iii) documentary analysis of the final report issued by the Parliamentary Inquiry Commission that investigated violations of human rights in medical schools in the state of Sao Paulo. This thesis is structured in three parts. The first examines the place occupied by women in the field of medicine in Brazil through a historic-demographic review of the literature that addresses the issues involving gender inequality in medicine in the current context of feminization in this occupation. The second explores the importance of sports training and the sociability structured by athletic organizations as an environment where there is also learning about important provisions for the career. Finally, the third part examines the training process within the curriculum. One highlighted result obtained by this research is the demonstration of how gender relations contribute to structure power relationships. These in turn, act as one of the forces that structure the access of men and women to the different spaces in which medical training occurs. Recurrent in the different phases of medical school, the gender cleavage ultimately influences the training experience, helping to define patterns of specialty choice that are perpetuated despite the recent increase in the proportion of women in medical school.