Why fewer women become physicians: Explaining the premed persistence gap |
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Authors: | Robert Fiorentine Stephen Cole |
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Institution: | (1) Neuropsychiatric Institute, University of California, Los Angeles, 1100 Glendon Avenue, Suite 763, 90024-3511 Los Angeles, California;(2) Department of Sociology, State University of New York at Stony Brook, 11794 Stony Brook, New York |
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Abstract: | Previous research indicates that the answer to the question of why fewer women become physicians lies in the premed persistence gap. Women are no less likely than men to enter undergraduate premed programs, but they are less likely to complete the program and apply to medical school. This article presents data from a study designed to test four plausible explanations of the persistence gap that are consistent with the structural barriers, normative barriers, and cognitive differences theories of gender inequality. The findings do not support the perception of discrimination hypothesis, the discouragement hypothesis, the self-derogation hypothesis, and the anticipated role conflict hypothesis. Rather, the evidence suggests another explanation — the normative alternatives approach. This approach holds that contemporary gender norms offer women fewer disincentives to changing or lowering their high-status career goals when encountering hardship, self-doubt, and the possibility of failure.An earlier draft of this paper was presented at the annual meetings of the American Sociological Association, Atlanta, August 1988. |
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Keywords: | gender stratification theories gender norms gender differences in occupational aspirations gender differences in achievement women in medicine |
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