Performance of Male and Female Medical Students in a Medicine Clerkship

Abstract

Little has been published about objective evaluation and comparison of performance of female and male medical students in clinical clerkships. Data were collected on objective grading and examination results of a three-month medicine clerkship involving 269 medical students, 222 men and 47 women, during 1975 and 1976. There were no significant differences in final course grades between the two sexes. Performance in wards and clinics and on written and oral examinations was also without significant differences when the two sexes' scores were compared. Thus, gender would appear to have no relationship to medical student performance in this clinical clerkship.