Gendered careers in Post-Soviet society: views on professional qualifications in surgery and pediatrics
ENThis study examines the medical profession in post-Soviet society, where women have been in the majority of the physicians for almost seven decades. It examines pediatricians’ and surgeons’ definitions of the professional skills and qualities needed for ‘‘good’’ work. Lithuania is used as a case study. Thirty-six semi-structured interviews were conducted in 2005 with male and female surgeons and pediatricians in Lithuania. The results show that the gender composition of the specialty—surgery being a male-dominated and pediatrics a female-dominated specialty—tended to influence the way that physicians perceived the qualities needed for good work. For surgeons, male-gendered qualities were prerequisites for being a good surgeon: physical strength and being in control. Female surgeons added a female-gendered quality—empathy and compassion—that made them good surgeons. A good pediatrician had a holistic and empathic approach and an ability to communicate, which were seen as female-gendered skills. Male pediatricians experienced otherness in this specialty but did not, as women surgeons did, offer a counter discourse in order to legitimate themselves as being as skilled as women. Keywords: professional skills, gender, medical profession, Post-Soviet society. [From the publication]
- Professionalism and medical work in a Post-Soviet society: between four logics / Elianne Riska, Aurelija Novelskaite. Anthropology of East Europe review. 2011. vol. 29, no. 1, p. 82-93.
- Women's ambitions in post-Soviet professional environments : meing a physician, a surgeon, a scientist, a mother, and a wife / Aurelija Novelskaite, Elianne Riska. ESA 2009. 2009. P. 1-16.
- Women's rights in Lithuania : achievements and threats of mainstreaming gender / Jolanta Reingardė. Gender matters in the Baltics / edited by Irina Novikova. Rīga: LU Akadēmiskais apgāds, 2008. P. 34-53.
