[The category gender and meeting standards for medical education as a result]

The Medical School Hanover, Institute of History, Ethics and Philosophy in Medicine, in co-operation with the University of Bristol, School for Policy Studies, carried out a project to examine the meaning of gender in medical education and to detect methods to incorporate the gender-perspective from public health research and gender studies as an interdisciplinary programme into medical education. The duration of the project was limited to two years, and funded by the EU from 2001 to 2003. The study clearly shows that the category gender is being very slowly introduced into medical education at medical faculties and medical universities in Europe. Questions are primary focussed on biological differences between the sexes of patients, whereas gender studies touch gender relationships in occupations, interactions and communication, different styles of leadership etc. The adaptation of this approach may lead to a new understanding of the doctor-patient-interaction as well as of the relationship between teachers and students.