Gender segregation in specialised medical training

The research intends to deal with a topic of relevant importance: gender inequalities ineducational and professional paths. The scientific literature has placed this issue, withconsiderable interest, at the centre of the debate on the broader theme of gender inequalitieswithin the “knowledge society”, with a body of studies and research very broad and extensive.However, the proposal presented here, while drawing on this tradition of studies, intends toassume a very specific and, at least as far as the Italian context is concerned, still little exploredperspective of the phenomenon. The main objective of this project is, in fact, to investigate gender differences in training andaccess to the medical profession. More specifically, we aim to identify the psychological,cultural, organisational, and social factors that influence the gender imbalance in medicalspecialties. This focus guarantees us the possibility, therefore, of concentrating attention on atraining and professional domain with very interesting characteristics in relation to the issue ofgender inequalities. Medical training and activity is characterised, on the one hand, by a high rate of feminisation,but on the other hand, especially in the area of specialisation, significant gender differencesemerge that show a greater presence of men in some branches (urology, orthopaedics,traumatology, etc.) and women in others (paediatrics, gynaecology, radiotherapy, etc.). Thesedifferences are not infrequently linked to inequalities in terms of wages, career expectations andsocial prestige. The domain under analysis is therefore particularly interesting because itpresents an apparent paradox.. On the one hand, we observe a professional sectorcharacterised by high social and labour prestige, high pay levels and significant careeropportunities, which is largely accessible to women. On the other hand, however, strong gendersegregation within specialties emerges. In order to be able to analyse which social processes, relational mechanisms, and genderstereotypes operate at the basis of this segregation, the project will use: a wide range ofmultidisciplinary skills (from sociology to psychology, to base science) and methodological skills(standardised quantitative and flexible qualitative instruments in a mixed-method perspective).The project also foresees the implementation of various research actions concerning both the entire Italian national territory and the in-depth study of a local context, the Piedmont region,which, with more than 4,000 students in the various medical courses of the Universities of Turinand Eastern Piedmont, represents an important point of observation.