Gender relations, seniority structure, and subjectivities in surgical training in Istanbul, Turkey

This thesis examines gender relations in surgical training in Istanbul, based on 20 interviews with medical interns, i.e., senior medical students who are about to get their undergraduate medical school degree and doing internships in different medical specialties in hospitals. Through focusing on the seniority structure in medical school, the study argues that the traditional organization of medical education, based on unequal power relations (re)produced by the strict seniority hierarchy, creates gendered hierarchies and abusive power relationships between medical professionals. After examining various social conventions the seniority structure includes, it attempts to understand everyday gendered relations in surgical training, which put women in a disadvantageous position compared to men, who are considered natural occupants of surgical specialties. Examining everyday gendered practices and discourses in surgical specialties shows that these practices and discourses shape the experiences and subjectivities of medical interns and affect their specialty choices, leading women to give up the idea of being a surgeon, even though a high proportion of women enter medical school with the goal of getting into surgical specialties. In the gendered context of surgical training, women are both tacitly and openly directed to non-surgical specialties as they are accepted to be "fragile" and incapable of dealing with the harsh requirements of surgical training where survival and challenge are rewarded concepts. Moreover, while this context discourages women medical interns from choosing surgical specialties, it encourages men through male bonding. However, this thesis does not put women into a passive position. It also focuses on women's criticisms of surgical training and analyzes the subversive practices of women and LGBTI+ medical students, who are getting organized to deconstruct gendered conventions and dismantle gendered organization of medical school and surgical training.