Gender and the medical curriculum: a rural case study

In Australia, half the medical students are women. There is increasing evidence that women engage with medicine differently from men, and medical workforce planners are being required to consider the implications of this change, particularly in areas of medical need. Between 1996-2001, the Australian government provided funding for teaching about issues for female rural doctors to encourage female students to consider rural medical practice. This was extended to include teaching about gender issues for doctors. Introducing this teaching has required building credibility for the topic among funders, faculty and students, training tutors, and meeting the need of students for an intellectual framework within which to think about gender and medicine. Teaching about gender requires conscious leadership by senior academic women. This paper describes an initiative in the rural curriculum for medical students.