Finanziamento UE – NextGenerationEU PRIN 2022 PNRR - Gender segregation in specialised medical training - PNRR M4C2 investimento 1.1 Avviso 1409/2022

The research intends to deal with a topic of relevant importance: gender inequalities in educational and professional paths. The scientific literature has placed this issue, with considerable interest, at the centre of the debate on the broader theme of gender inequalities within the “knowledge society”, with a body of studies and research very broad and extensive. However, the proposal presented here, while drawing on this tradition of studies, intends to assume a very specific and, at least as far as the Italian context is concerned, still little explored perspective of the phenomenon. The main objective of this project is, in fact, to investigate gender differences in training and access to the medical profession. Morespecifically, we aim to identify the psychological, cultural, organisational, and social factors that influence the gender imbalance in medical specialties. This focus guarantees us the possibility, therefore, of concentrating attention on a training and professional domain with very interesting characteristics in relation to the issue of gender inequalities. Medical training and activity is characterised, on the one hand, by a high rate of feminisation, but on the other hand, especially in the area of specialisation, significant gender differences emerge that show a greater presence of men in some branches (urology, orthopaedics, traumatology, etc.) and women in others (paediatrics, gynaecology, radiotherapy, etc.). These differences are not infrequently linked to inequalities in terms of wages, career expectations and social prestige. The domain under analysis is therefore particularly interesting because it presents an apparent paradox.. On the one hand, we observe a professional sector characterised by high social and labour prestige, high pay levels and significant career opportunities, which is largely accessible to women. On the other hand, however, strong gender segregation within specialties emerges. In order to be able to analyse which social processes, relational mechanisms, and gender stereotypes operate at the basis of this segregation, the project will use: a wide range of multidisciplinary skills (from sociology to psychology, to base science) and methodological skills (standardised quantitative and flexible qualitative instruments in a mixed-method perspective). The project also foresees the implementation of various research actions concerning both the entire Italian national territory and the in-depth study of a local context, the Piedmont region, which, with more than 4,000 students in the various medical courses of the Universities of Turin and Eastern Piedmont, represents an important point of observation.