Enjeux de prestige et enjeux de genre en médecine du travail

Abstract

Abstract : The article starts by looking at the social and historical mechanisms that have led to a massive recruitment of female occupational doctors. It then analyses current issues involved in redefining this professional activity, one whose legal framework is currently undergoing reform. Even though the drive towards greater multi-disciplinarity has brought other professional groups into this field, occupational doctors continue to disagree about which aspects of their activity they value the most and therefore want to still control. Gender stereotypes play an ambivalent role in framing these conflicting approaches. Some doctors have started highlighting listening skill and empathy-based professional practices as a counterpoint to the more “virile” vision of occupational medicine that the reform has been trying to impose.

Keywords

• occupational medicine
• gender
• prestige
• feminization
• multidisciplinarianism