Purpose
Gender disparities exist in healthcare outcomes, due to biological, social, and access differences. Historically, women have been marginalized in medicine and medical research, especially related to reproductive healthcare. Currently in medical education, there is little focus on gender disparities, which further perpetuates disparate health outcomes. Few studies exist to understand the best educational intervention to improve gender disparities in health outcomes. This study aimed to educate medical students about the history of women’s reproductive rights in the United States, to help students better understand the existing gender-based healthcare gaps. We hypothesized this educational intervention would increase student knowledge, which is the first step towards improving attitudes and future behaviors toward female patients and colleagues.

Methods
Second-year medical students at Western Michigan University Homer Stryker M.D. School of Medicine participated in an educational intervention about women’s reproductive rights (between 2026-2028, N=156). Pre- and post-intervention surveys were collected to evaluate student perceptions, knowledge, and attitudes.

Results
Female students were more likely to report having prior formal education with women’s reproductive rights and were more likely to perceive gender disparities in medical education and medicine compared to male peers. Following the intervention, overall student knowledge of the material increased significantly from 45% to 79% of questions correct on average (p <0.001), with women achieving higher scores than men. Overall, 84% of students agreed that their attitudes towards women’s reproductive rights were impacted by this event, with no statistically significant differences seen between women and men. Further, the event was highly rated by students.

Conclusions
This study showed that an educational intervention can enhance student knowledge and awareness of the gender inequities seen in healthcare outcomes. Our findings also suggest changes in student-reported attitudes post-intervention, however, the impact of these changes on actions towards future patients still needs to be measured.