{
  "abstract": "Objectives Academic medical careers remain marked by persistent gender inequalities, despite the growing feminisation of the medical workforce. The objective of this study was to examine whether gender differences exist in key individual and institutional determinants of academic medical career aspirations among medical residents, including research motivation, mentoring, work centrality, self-efficacy, perceived discrimination and stress.Design This was a national cross-sectional online survey.Setting Multicentre study conducted across 36 medical schools in France.Participants A total of 1570 medical residents (997 women and 573 men) voluntarily participated between November 2022 and February 2023. All participants completed validated self-report questionnaires. There were no exclusion criteria beyond being enrolled in a French residency programme.Primary and secondary outcome measures Attitudes towards research (interest, motivation, significance) were measured using the Scale of Attitudes towards Research. Mentoring was assessed with the Mentor–Mentee Perception Questionnaire, work centrality with Hirschfeld and Feild’s scale, self-efficacy with the General Self-Efficacy Scale, perceived discrimination with the Sexual Harassment and Discrimination Experiences of Academic Medical Faculty instrument and stress with the Perceived Stress Scale. Gender differences were analysed using t-tests or χ² tests with Holm-Bonferroni corrections for multiple comparisons.Results Compared with men, women reported lower research motivation (mean (SD) 21.0 (5.5) vs 22.8 (5.5); p adj=0.011), lower research interest (27.1 (5.5) vs 28.1 (5.7); padj=0.011), lower work centrality (26.7 (7.0) vs 28.2 (8.1); padj=0.011) and lower self-efficacy (28.3 (5.2) vs 29.9 (5.0); padj=0.011). Women were less likely to report having a mentor (38.5% vs 44.5%; padj=0.02). They also reported substantially higher levels of experienced gender discrimination (22.8% vs 3.8%; padj=0.005), sexual harassment (57.7% vs 18.2%; padj=0.005) and perceived stress (8.48 (3.29) vs 7.27 (3.43); padj=0.011)Conclusions Gender differences were observed across several individual and institutional factors associated with academic medical career aspirations. Reduced access to mentoring and greater exposure to discrimination and stress among women may contribute to lower research motivation and self-efficacy. These findings highlight the need for institutional strategies addressing mentoring, workplace culture and equity to support gender parity in academic medicine.Registration OSF preregistration for this study is available at https://osf.io/9yseq/?view_only=1c72743f542b402ba67beed6908e597d",
  "authors": [
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Nantes Université, Univ Angers, Laboratoire de psychologie des Pays de la Loire, LPPL, UR 4638, F-44000 Nantes, France"
      ],
      "name": "Aurore Deledalle"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Nantes Université, Univ Angers, Laboratoire de psychologie des Pays de la Loire, LPPL, UR 4638, F-44000 Nantes, France"
      ],
      "name": "Anne Congard"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Nantes Université, Univ Angers, Laboratoire de psychologie des Pays de la Loire, LPPL, UR 4638, F-44000 Nantes, France"
      ],
      "name": "Valentine Bour"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Nantes Université, Univ Angers, Laboratoire de psychologie des Pays de la Loire, LPPL, UR 4638, F-44000 Nantes, France",
        "L-VIS Laboratory of Vulnerabilities and Innovation in Sport (UR 7428), Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, Lyon, France"
      ],
      "name": "Élisa Sarda"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Assistance publique Hôpitaux de Paris, Hôpital de la Pitié-Salpêtrière, service de médecine interne 2, centre des maladies infectieuses et immunologique INSERM UMRS 1135, Sorbonne Université, Paris, France"
      ],
      "name": "Fleur Cohen"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Nantes Université, INSERM, CIC 1413, Pôle Hospitalo-Universitaire 11: Santé Publique, Clinique des données, CHU de Nantes, Nantes, Pays de la Loire, France"
      ],
      "name": "Pierre-Antoine Gourraud"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Nantes Université, CHU Nantes, CNRS, INSERM, l’institut du thorax, Nantes F-44000, France"
      ],
      "name": "Patricia Lemarchand"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Are there gender differences in academic medical career aspirations related to research, mentoring and discrimination? A national cross-sectional study of French medical residents",
  "uid": "eacd5158-a4c5-5983-b7ff-a184b40859ad"
}