title: Gender and the pre-clinical experiences of female medical students: a taxonomy.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The number of women entering medical school has increased substantially in recent years. However, practising female doctors still report gender-associated professional challenges. We focused on female medical students to characterise how gender shapes the range of their professional experiences during the pre-clinical years of medical school.
  
  
  METHODS
  We conducted a qualitative study from 2006 to 2007 using in-depth interviews with 12 Year 3 female medical students at a private New England medical school who had completed their pre-clinical years of training. All transcripts were analysed using a grounded theory approach; the code structure was developed through a process of inductive reasoning. Coding team members coded all transcripts line by line, using a constant comparative method of analysis.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The resulting taxonomy identifies three domains that capture the recurrent gender-associated experiences of our participants: (i) observations of the effect of gender on pre-clinical educational experiences through instructor, student and institutional behaviour; (ii) responses to observations of gender-based occurrences in terms of emotional reactions and strategic responses, and (iii) gender-associated expectations for the clinical years and beyond brought about by a heightened awareness of gender. Participants reported subtle as well as overt gender-based experiences and emotional consequences of both.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Female medical students continue to report numerous gender-based experiences during their pre-clinical training. Such experiences have both emotional and educational consequences and institutions should develop multifaceted approaches to address the full spectrum of gender-based experiences that affect medical students.
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut, USA Department of Internal Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, California, USA.
authors.forename: Palav
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Babaria
authors.forename: Susannah
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Bernheim
authors.forename: Marcella
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Nunez-Smith
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D004504:Education, Medical, Undergraduate / Q000592:standards*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D009511:New England; D011287:Prejudice; D012737:Sex Factors; D013337:Students, Medical / Q000523:psychology*; D014930:Women / Q000523:psychology; D055815:Young Adult