Gender and Its Influence on the Emerging Professional Physician Identities of Women Osteopathic Medical Students

• In Event: Intersectionality of Culture and Identity in the Professions

Abstract

The purpose of this narrative inquiry study was to gain a richer understanding from the perspective of gender about how third and fourth year women students at one osteopathic medical school were constructing their developing professional identities as future osteopathic physicians. This study sought to address a gap in the relevant literature in that no studies were found that studied the influence of gender on the development of medical students’ professional identities as physicians. In this study, participants, through their own written words, revealed that gender, particularly gendered personal identities and gender dynamics, significantly influenced the construction of their professional identities as future physicians.

Author

• Linda J. Dunatov, University of Pikeville