Examination the gender roles attitudes of residencies and their exposure to gender discrimination by qualitative and quantitative methods

This study was carried out to examine the attitudes of physician, who were working in Antalya and having residency education, towards their gender roles and also to examine their exposure to gender discrimination while performing their work-life. This study is a cross-sectional phenomenological research designed based on mixed method. In quantitative part of the study, 81.3% of the residency students working in Antalya were accessed, and a survey consisting of 78 items was applied in face-to-face interviews. In qualitative part, personal interviews were performed with 11 residency that were selected using purposeful sampling method. While male participants were dominant in surgery residency, women were dominant in basic sciences department of specialty (p:0.0001). Residency physicians have an equalitarian attitude towards their social gender roles, and this attitude was higher among the women (p: 0.0001) and physicians working in basic sciences departments (p: 0.047). When the answers of physicians to the propositions regarding their professional lives are considered in general, it can be seen that the surgical departments are considered suitable for men, while the departments requiring less working hours and less night duties are considered suitable for women, and that women physicians experience negativities because of their gender especially in surgical departments. In personal interviews, the participants stated that the gender have effects on choice of residency, professional activities, the communication between physicians and physicians, physicians and faculty member, physicians and other healthcare professionals, and physicians and patients, and on the private lives of physicians, and that especially women physicians are affected from this situation more negatively. In interviews, according to the experiences of physicians, the ones implementing the gender discrimination were expressed to be colleagues, faculty member, other healthcare professionals, and patients. In profession of medicine, the areas of speciality and the work-life to be performed are classified based on the gender. Women physicians are exposed to gender inequality and discriminative attitudes especially in surgical departments. Gender roles attributed to women negatively affect their professional and academic lives.