Gender differences in undergraduate performance in psychiatry

Earlier research reported that female undergradu ates performed significantly better than their male counterparts in medical school examinations. Such findings were partly explained by biases in admission policies with women (who formed only 25% of the student body) being higher achievers than men prior to entry to medical school. While some recent studies provide evidence of higher achievement levels by women (Norcini et al, 1985), it is increasingly recog nised that these differences do not apply to all special ities within medicine (unpublished observation, Ferrier & Scott, 1987). Two previous studies of undergraduate psychiatry performance of 121 (Alexander & Eagles, 1988) and 180(Keitner et al, 1984)students respectively showed non-significant differences in male and female attain ment. However, subjective impressions suggested that women students performed better than men in their Newcastle psychiatry attachment. This study examined the accuracy of this hypothesis and then compared gender related performance at under graduate and postgraduate level.