Focus gender – medical students' gender-specific perception and attitudes towards the burdens of everyday student life

Introduction: The aim of this study was to investigate if female and male medical students perceive burdens differently and if students of both sexes assess their capability to stand performance pressure differently. Material and Methods: In 2017, 2(nd) (n=424, 53% female) and 6(th) (n=161, 46.6% female) year students at the medical university of Vienna were surveyed using a fully structured questionnaire. Results: In 2(nd) year, female students felt significantly more often that they could not measure up to study requirements than male students (87,5% vs. 94,4%). Performance pressure was perceived as major problem by male (45,5%) and female (50,9%) students while in 6(th) year the number was only half as high than in 2(nd) (24%, 18,4%). In 6(th) year significantly more female than male students were complaining about competition between students (33,3% vs. 8%). Half of the students shared the view that there is no difference between men and women in the capability to deal with performance pressure. Most of the other half state that men are superior to women in handling performance pressure. In both groups significantly more male than female students were convinced that they are superior to the other sex in handling performance pressure. Conclusion: Perception of problems is similar in male and female students. While in objective assessments female students perform equally to male students they consider themselves less competent and are more inclined to doubt their capability.