Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2022 May 17;22(1):378.
doi: 10.1186/s12909-022-03453-0.

Surgical career choices of medical students in China: does gender bias play a role?

Liangru Zhou #  1 , Bingjie Liu #  1 , Wenqi Fu  1 , Wenhao Wu  1 , Yan Wang  1 , Peiyan Ju  1 , Xin Zhang  2 , Guoxiang Liu  3
Affiliations

Surgical career choices of medical students in China: does gender bias play a role?

Liangru Zhou et al. BMC Med Educ. .

Abstract

Background: Gender bias in career choices has always been a matter of great concern, including in the field of medicine. This study reports on the current situation in this regard in China, including the reasons for Chinese medical students' willingness to engage in surgical careers; investigates their accounts of gender bias; and analyzes the effect of gender bias on their surgical career choices.

Methods: This study invited medical students from Harbin Medical University to fill out a non-mandatory questionnaire on whether they had witnessed gender bias, their surgical career intentions, and factors influencing their career intentions. A one-way analysis of variance was used to compare the differences between continuous variables. Pearson's chi-squared test was used to compare the differences between the categorical variables, the Kendall correlation coefficient (tau) was used to assess the correlation between the reasons rankings reported by gender, and a multiple regression analysis was conducted by logit model.

Results: A total of 643 students responded to the questionnaire. Of them, 63.76% expressed a willingness for a surgical career, with "interest" being a key driving factor (73.41%). Almost all respondents (96.27%) answered that there were more male leaders in the surgical departments they had rotated through or had contacted. Only a few respondents reported gender barriers influencing recruitment (32.19%). However, witnessing gender bias (recruitment of male required) was correlated to choice of surgical career (P < 0.05). Females were less willing to pursue a career in surgery if they had witnessed gender barriers in surgical recruitment. Male dominance also correlated to the choice of a surgical career (P < 0.1). Of the respondents, 53.19% believed that surgery was not suitable for females; among female respondents, this number was 56.12%, higher than for male respondents. When females think that the surgical profession is not suitable for them, it reduces the possibility of their pursuing a career in surgery.

Conclusion: Most medical students were interested in surgical care. Witnessing gender bias decreases females' willingness to pursue a career in surgery. It is necessary to stimulate medical students' interest in surgery when formulating strategies to promote surgical career choices, as well as to reduce gender bias in surgery; in this way, females' surgical careers should be ensured.

Keywords: Career choice; Gender bias; Medical student; Surgical career.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest..

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Respondents’ reasons for interest in a surgical career
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Respondents’ reasons for lack of interest in a surgical career
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Surgical subfield preference by gender
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Respondents’ reasons for finding females unsuitable for surgery
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Sutton PA, Mason J, Vimalachandran D, et al. Attitudes, motivators, and barriers to a career in surgery: a national study of UK undergraduate medical students. J Surg Educ. 2014;71(5):662–667. doi: 10.1016/j.jsurg.2014.03.005. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Heiligers PJ. Gender differences in medical students’ motives and career choice. BMC Med Educ. 2012;23(12):82. doi: 10.1186/1472-6920-12-82. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Lee CW. Gender difference and specialty preference in medical career choice. Korean J Med Educ. 2013;25(1):15–21. doi: 10.3946/kjme.2013.25.1.15. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Yin K, Yang L, Zhang R, Zheng D, Wilkes MS, Lai Y. Gender differences and influencing factors in specialty choices: findings from one medical school in China. Front Public Health. 2021;26(9):648612. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2021.648612. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Robnett R. Girls’ and women’s preferred methods of coping with gender bias in STEM. Int J Gend Sci Technol. 2015;8(1):19–37.

LinkOut - more resources