Racism and sexism in the trajectory of black female medical students: an integrative review

Abstract

Black female medical students are a minority and face various obstacles during their training because they are black women. The study aimed to synthesize the knowledge produced in empirical studies on the racial and gender discrimination suffered by black female medical students. We carried out an integrative review using the PubMed and VHL databases. Fifty studies were analyzed in depth and classified into three thematic categories: 1- Systemic-structural and structuring racial prejudice. 2- Racism as one of the factors of inequity in medical education. 3- Genderized racism experienced by black students. It was concluded that in medical schools, a social space with low ethnic/racial diversity and crossed by structural racism, female black students are negatively discriminated by the intersection of race, gender and social class dynamics.