Sexual stereotypes :
Equality between the sexes within the medical profession has not been achieved partly because of stereotypical attitudes that still prevail today. Stereotyping can be defined as attributing various qualities to an individual of a particular group: suppose, the individual is a female, a member of a minority group or from a particular religion.
Terms like 'nurturing', 'mothering', 'caring', 'nursing' are stereotypically considered to be women's attributes whereas 'technical skills', 'complicated scientific knowledge', 'leadership' are stereotypically attributed to men. As mentioned above, professions like pediatrics, gynecology and obstetrics are thought to embrace women's attributes while surgery, cardiology and emergency
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And finally, within Eastern Europe, women comprise an overwhelming 80% of practicing doctors (Healy, 1997). The increasing number of women in medicine has the potential to change how medicine is practiced in various ways. LOW PRESTIGE OF WOMEN IN MEDICINE
Traditional gender values in different parts of the world influence the amount and type of participation of women in medicine. It has been noted that medicine in the former USSR has been characterized as a 'feminine' profession requiring personal involvement and compassion, whereas in the U.S, medicine has been dominated by men, resulting in the view of medicine as a rational and objective profession requiring competitiveness and mental strength. (Notzer, 1995).
In countries like Israel and Egypt, where the number of women in medicine has also increased, the statistics imply that with the increasing number of women, the prestige and income associated with the profession has been lowered (Notzer,
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The familiar concerns of white women in academic medicine may not be relevant to women from different cultural, ethnic or class origins (Bernstein and Cock, 1994). Women minority physicians face problems of lower numbers and promotion rates than non-minority women colleagues. Of greatest concern is the under representation of women physicians from minorities including African, Native American or Mexican.
Minority faculty remain significantly less likely than their majority colleagues to be promoted, with only 1% of under represented minority faculty reaching senior ranks. Although family medicine may be better than other faculties in recruiting and retaining minority faculty members, the proportion of under represented minority faculty in family medicine is significantly higher than in medical school faculties overall (Lewis-Stevenson et al, 2001). Under represented minority faculty members also have significantly lower levels of career satisfaction than their majority