ABSTRACT
This chapter considers issues of gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation and religious beliefs — all of which can have an impact on the learning experiences of Foundation doctors. Worldwide, women tend to choose particular specialties: internal medicine, paediatrics, obstetrics, gynaecology, family practice and psychiatry. Studies worldwide have shown that in postgraduate education and training women tend to work more hours, experience more stress, and report more personal, emotional and relationship problems than do their male counterparts. Trainees with a visible impairment may have to work harder to establish credibility with patients and to deal repeatedly with social awkwardness in patients and colleagues in a way that sometimes wears down a successful coping style. As patient-centred and team-based collaborative practices become the norm, the medical landscape will surely change, perhaps shaped by a new didactic metaphor of collaboration and holism within an ecological feminism.
