Gender and extracurricular passions
BMJ 2005; 331 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/sbmj.0511438a (Published 01 November 2005) Cite this as: BMJ 2005;331:0511438a
- Seye Abimbola, fifth year medical student1
- 1Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife, Nigeria
Beautiful ladies
I think this is because female medical students become more serious after all their preclinical flings, settling down to the reality that their attractive status as young, intelligent, and usually beautiful medical students, has begun to wane as age begins to take its toll on them and they become less desirable. Male medical students, on the other hand, start feeling the demand to become real men as they begin to perceive the time of graduation draw closer. In the Nigerian context, a real man is an all round developed individual with cash in the bank, good spiritual maturity, proper ideological orientation in several issues of life, good public and interpersonal relationships, and a sustainable passion such as literature, chess, basketball, or football. And maybe, some might add, a girlfriend, girlfriends, or one girlfriend after the other—a whole load of extracurricular commitments for the male medical student.
Whatever happens, men get very busy during the clinical studentships because of all these commitments. As they are exceedingly time intensive, these attractions will easily shift most guys' equilibrium away from their academic work.
Lack of pressure on women?
Women also have their own extracurricular passions, but they hardly feel these pressures like the men do. Indeed, as ladies mature, mostly at a faster rate than guys, their adaptability to the pressures of life increases.
Besides this, women are generally more ostentatiously fearful than guys. This tendency to be fearful also makes them study more seriously than the average man would. Moreover, due to the feminine appeal, examiners, who …
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