The integration of gender in medical research and education-obstacles and possibilities from a Nordic perspective

Research on women's issues in medicine was developed in the Nordic countries from the beginning of the 1980s. The theoretical developments led to a change of concepts from women's health to gender research, within which the structurally organised relations between men and women are analysed. Over the last decades, gender research has slowly been established in medical faculties, as a result of a strong political commitment for increased research and integration of gender issues in the university curriculum in Sweden. The government has made substantial investments in order to stimulate gender research and education in different disciplines, with special focus on medicine. Academic medicine has responded to this development with different strategies, including resistance and redefining concepts. Gender research has slowly become integrated into both research and teaching within Nordic academic medicine, although the pathway has not been easy. Gender research has had political support but there is a risk of backlash. Medical students' reactions to gender education can be compared with academic medicine's reactions towards gender research. Obstacles and possibilities are described in relation to teaching gender in schools of medicine. Most important is to recognise the risks for increased gender stereotypes and increased essentialism among the students, unless gender is taught from a theoretical perspective. (C) 2003 by The Haworth Press, Inc. All rights reserved.