When female medical students are the majority: do numbers really make a difference?

According to Kanter's theory of group dynamics, when women constitute half or more of the population in a given setting, their interactions with their male peers are more balanced and they are in a better position to influence their colleagues' professional attitudes and behavior. The influence is only significant, however, if other structural factors favor attitude and behavioral changes. Using data obtained from a mail survey of 1,247 students (82.4% response rate) conducted at three levels of medical training in three medical schools where female students were in the majority, we compared male and female students on their professional attitudes. At entrance to medical school, women were more interested in the humanistic, psychosocial, and multidisciplinary components of the physician's role than their male colleagues. At the intermediate level, however, women's interest in humanistic and psychosocial issues was less pronounced and at the graduate level this gender difference was no larger present. These results are discussed in terms of their implications for medical training.