Gender and identity in the medical profession: a study with residents

Educational institutions play an important role in the technical development of residents and in the construction of their professional identities. The construction of collective identity results from the confrontation between the acts of identity attribution for oneself and the acts of attribution by others. The objective of the study was to compare the attributes that best characterize the socioprofessional identity of male and female medical residents. The chosen research method was a cross-sectional study by means of a survey. The sample comprised 327 medical residents from 4 hospitals in Greater Belo Horizonte. Male respondents from the engineering area totaled 41.90% and female respondents from the health area, 58.10%. The data collection instrument used was a questionnaire with the Professional Self-Perception and Heteroperception Scale (EAHP). The data were analyzed using structural equation modeling with a multigroup approach. The results point to significant gender differences in the Subordination and Accomplishment dimensions in the self-perception, and in the Effort and Achievement dimensions in the heteroperception. The Recognition dimension received the lowest scores in both genders. We conclude that this configuration can generate suffering and weaken the construction of the socio-professional identity of resident physicians.