Students at the University of Glasgow’s Medical School claim the issue of misogyny “runs deep within the department”.
Youth news site The Tab asked female undergraduates to share their experiences after The Herald revealed an inquiry had been launched into allegations of gendered bullying.
They all wished to remain anonymous.
One student said this was because there is a “culture of hushing students from speaking to the press” and feared the ramifications of speaking out.
Another who was interviewed said: “Gender disparity in the medical school has been a longstanding issue.
"People who try to address it just get hushed.”
One undergraduate told reporter Mia Squire that she had direct experience with misogyny, alleging she was told by a male senior lecturer she should be doing a “correspondence course” to become a “secretary” instead of studying medicine.
Another said she was pleased that another male academic had spoken out about the issues.
Dr James Going resigned from his lecturing post claiming there was a “culture of misogyny” at the medical school.
The student said: “Someone really should have said something earlier.
"People at the top are complicit in this and everyone below who wants to speak up doesn’t dare to.”
Another female student claims a senior academic in the medical school had warned another against publishing her study in a journal on how gender affects studying medicine in because it was critical of the school.
Some fear that issues with gender discrimination are prevalent in the field of medicine as a whole and examples of misogynistic behaviour at the University of Glasgow are “a stark reminder of the gender disparities they are bound to be exposed to throughout their careers”.
A report by the British Medical Association UK, published earlier this year, found nine in 10 female doctors have experienced some form of sexism at work.
The BMA survey also found that women are disproportionately affected by sexism and gender bias.
It said: “The institutional factors that accompany a medical career are still disadvantaging women, which feeds into the culture that women are ‘less than’.
“Women doctors appear to be working in an environment that consistently undervalues them and doubts their capabilities.”
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