Introduction:

The “feminization” of medicine is a national and worldwide phenomenon. Women have been increasingly choosing this field as a profession, changing the demographics of Brazilian and international medicine. However, there are still some barriers in medical education and practice, such as perpetual gender stereotypes, which can be observed in the underrepresentation of women in surgical fields. Furthermore, wage inequality, harassment, sexism, prejudice, and gender discrimination are other challenges faced by female physicians.

Objective:

The article analyzed the understanding of female physicians regarding gender relations and their potential influence on their academic formation.

Method:

This is a qualitative study that involved semi-structured interviews that were conducted from November to December 2022 with thirteen female physicians practicing professionally in the city of Marabá, in the state of Pará. The sample was obtained using the snowball method and the Thematic Content Analysis proposed by Laurence Bardin was used to process the data.

Result:

The interviews pointed to a diversity of understandings about the concept of gender and demonstrated, in various regards, the interference of gender relations in medical education. The participants narrated misogynistic and sexist situations they had experienced, most of which evidenced the belittling of women’s professional qualifications. Additionally, harassment was clearly evident among the contributors, as nine out of the thirteen interviewees reported episodes involving comments about their appearance, invitations, favors, and physical contact, mainly from professors and preceptors. It was also noted that stereotypes related to specialty choice are evident in the medical field, as there is a predominance of women in clinical areas such as dermatology and pediatrics and a distancing from surgical specialties.

Conclusion:

The participants’ reports revealed the physicians’ understanding of the concept of gender, with contrasting views. In addition, this work addressed how, from the perspective of female physicians, gender influences academic training in various aspects, depicting the quality of situations presented by the interviewees that highlight this interference.

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