Creating an interdisciplinary network for gender mainstreaming in medical education

Women and non-binary individuals suffer from explicit and implicit forms of gender discrimination and sexism during medical education, training, and clinical practice, with implications for the gender pay gap, work-life imbalances, and gender bias in medical research. To attain gender equity in medical education, we must look beyond these gender biases and incorporate into every decision, all research, and all medical treatment a gender perspective. This engaged research initiative aims to create an interdisciplinary network of health sciences, humanities, and social sciences scholars and examine how sexism and gender stereotypes play out during medical training and clinical practice in medical schools. Specifically, this project connects scholars based at Koc University, Turkey, and the University of College Cork, Ireland, to exchange ideas and discuss effective mechanisms to address gender discrimination in diverse medical education and training settings. Our purpose is to apply for a large research grant that comparatively explores different forms of gender discrimination in various medical education settings and develop novel methodologies with the contribution of partners that would help remove barriers to creating less sexist and more egalitarian medical training. To this end, we will organize two workshops where scholars and students from Koc University and University College Cork exchange their experiences, ideas, and concerns regarding gender inequity in medical education.