The Gendered Work/Role of Program Directors in International Graduate Medical Education

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Sociology of Science
• Leadership Studies

Background:

• Physician leadership roles, such as program director (PD), are crucial for training future generations of doctors.
• The gender distribution of PDs can significantly influence the trajectory of medical specialties.
• Understanding how gender influences PD roles is essential for equitable representation and effective medical education.

Purpose of the Study:

• To explore how international program directors perceive and negotiate gendered understandings of their roles.
• To apply Relational Dialectics Theory 2.0 to analyze competing discourses surrounding gender in PD work.
• To investigate the impact of structural, cultural, and professional meanings of gender on PD experiences.

Main Methods:

• Conducted 33 in-depth interviews with program directors in Qatar, Singapore, and the United Arab Emirates.
• Employed contrapuntal analysis to examine competing discourses related to gender in the PD role.
• Utilized Relational Dialectics Theory 2.0 as a framework for analysis.

Main Results:

• Identified multiple, often competing, meanings of gender within the PD role, shaped by structural, cultural, and professional contexts.
• Program directors expressed dilemmas arising from traditional gender binaries, interpreting masculine/feminine work/role meanings differently.
• These negotiations occur within everyday organizational and cultural challenges faced by PDs.

Conclusions:

• Gender is understood and enacted in diverse ways within the program director role across different international contexts.
• The study highlights the complexities of gender binaries and their influence on leadership perceptions in medical education.
• Findings have significant implications for strategies aimed at recruiting and retaining diverse program directors in teaching hospitals.