Medical Schools as Gendered Organizations

• In Event: 2451 - Section on Organizations, Occupations, and Work Refereed Roundtables (1 hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 22. School-to-Work

Abstract

With women now surpassing men in educational attainment, increasing feminization of previously male-dominated professions, and less between occupational sex-segregation, schools will be an important organizational context that might perpetuate occupational sex-segregation but now within occupational categories. The medical profession – one of the most prestigious and highest paid occupations in the U.S. – has been feminizing for several decades and now equal numbers of men and women are graduating from medical school. Nevertheless, the sex-segregation within the medical profession remains surprisingly high. This paper analyzes the organization of medical schools drawing from Acker’s “theory of gendered organizations” in which she argues organizations are not gender neutral but structurally advantage men. I completed a content analysis of 135 medical schools’ curricula and student handbooks and found the same patterns that gender the organization of workplaces also gender medical schools. Female-typed medical skills and specialties are devalued relative to male-typed medical skills and specialties. As well, the ideal student akin to the ideal worker is an abstract category, necessarily disembodied, and by default a man unencumbered by the primary care responsibilities often delegated to women. The results from this study underscore the need to apply the theory of gendered organizations beyond work contexts.

Author

• Livia Baer-Bositis, Stanford University