Abstract

This article documents the gender abuse that Mexican medical students face. The concept of medical socialization is analyzed, with emphasis on the problem of the mistreatment of medical students. The theoretical framework articulates ideas from Foucault and Goffman with the nodal points of Bourdieu using a gender focus. Numerous examples are employed to show that the formal program of study also contains a hidden curriculum which serves to reproduce gender hierarchies. Women face numerous types of socially induced discouragement in choosing and completing their course of study, particularly in certain specialties. Discrimination is present in affectivized as well as in authoritarian interactions. They face sexual harassment in the classroom and in their years of specialization, and are constantly constructed as subordinated subjects. The importance of these findings in the constitution of a medical habitus is discussed.