Discourses of sameness, unbalance and influence: dominant gender order in medicine

Abstract

Despite the ongoing increase of women in the medical force, gender inequalities persist in medicine. The purpose of this paper is to study the mechanisms that regulate the contemporary gender order through a critical discourse analysis. We conducted 21 narrative interviews with Italian physicians, and 1 focus group with 10 Italian senior-year medical students. We used Fairclough’s three-dimensional framework to explain how “hegemonic masculinity” shapes discourses of sameness aimed at silencing gender inequalities in medicine; “natural female domesticity” challenges this sense-making and introduces new sparks in the debate about female career paths; similarly, “influential group power” discourses nurture the reflections about elitism in the profession. Our findings show that the new generation of physicians challenges the dominant gender order proposing new ways of negotiating gender roles in favour of a greater gender equality. This paper offers causes for reflection on a profession that has profound implications in our society and about the ways it is powered by dominant socio-political discourses which potentially can influence doctors’ careers. We address the potential in discourses to subvert or sustain power structures permeating healthcare professions, disclosing the discursive mechanism underlying different forms of oppression and offering the means to raise awareness and change.

Keywords:

• Gender order
• discourse analysis
• critical feminism
• medicine
• new generations

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Silvia De Simone is a senior researcher in Work and Organizational Psychology and teaches Human Resource Management (HRM) at the University of Cagliari (Faculty of Human Sciences in Italy). She is the vice-director of the masters in HRM at Cagliari University. Her research interests focus on work–family interface, diversity and equality at the workplace, well-being at work, occupational health, safety and stress.

Claudia Scano is a trainee post-graduate student at the University of Cagliari (Faculty of Human Sciences in Italy). Her research interests include gender and inclusion, and the factors related to the relationship between the individual and the organization.