Gender perception of physician candidates: a cross-sectional study from Turkey

Purpose: This study investigated how socio-cultural characteristics, including gender, age, socioeconomic status, religiosity, and parental education, influence the gender perceptions of medical students and how these perceptions are influenced by medical education. Method: This cross-sectional study enrolled 380 volunteer medical students who completed a questionnaire comprising sociodemographic items, the validated Nijmegen Gender Awareness in Medical Scale, and the Perception of Gender Scale (PGS). Statistical significance was set at p<0.05. Results: Mean PGS scores were significantly higher among first-semester students compared to sixth-semester students (101.94±19.40 vs. 95.52±19.83, p=0.013) and among female compared to male participants (106.51±13.28 vs. 87.71±19.94, p<0.001). Self-reported “very religious” participants demonstrated significantly lower PGS scores compared to other religious categories in both female (p<0.001) and male (p=0.002) subgroups. Gender Role Ideology towards Doctors scores showed a moderate negative correlation with PGS scores (r=–0.459, p<0.001). Conclusion: Female gender, younger age, urban living, higher income, and higher levels of maternal and paternal education supported a positive gender perspective. Towards the end of medical education, gender perceptions tend to become less egalitarian. These findings highlight the potential for medical education to negatively impact gender perceptions and underscore the need for integrating gender awareness training into medical curricula to promote more equitable attitudes among future physicians.