The feminization of medicine in Latin American schools

Abstract

In the middle of the 20th century, the number of women interested in studying a medical career and practicing it increased significantly, a situation called “feminization of medicine”. There are few works that demonstrate the increase in the female population in undergraduate and even more so in Latin America (LA). For these reasons, interest arises in assessing the present in the current scientific literature. A bibliographic review was carried out in the following databases: PUBMED, Cochrane Library and Epistemonik. The keywords used were: “female”, “medical school” or “School of medicine”, “latin america”. The search was carried out with the boolean operator «AND». After applying the outlined criteria, a total of 5 scientific articles were obtained. As results, it was determined that the university leadership does not represent the population of women. Gender influences the choice of medical specialty, being obstetrics, gynecology, pediatrics and dermatology the most chosen by women. Women experience more sexual harassment and gender discrimination than men in medical training. It is concluded that a greater study is necessary regarding the number of women who are currently studying medicine in the different faculties of the country. In the future there could be more graduates who need flexible hours in residences and hospitals to be able to balance their family and work life, being able to choose a medical specialty freely. We consider the evidence exposed regarding the discrimination suffered by students in the medical school to be alarming; it is urgent to carry out a more in-depth investigation in our country in order to take preventive measures