Relationship Between Confidence, Gender, and Career Choice in Internal Medicine.

This is the first study demonstrating a gender difference in self-reported confidence and career choice. There is a positive correlation in men: higher self-reported confidence with procedural specialties, lower with general internal medicine. Women's self-reported confidence had no association. Further investigation is needed to elucidate causative factors for differences in self-reported confidence by gender, and whether alterations in level of self-reported confidence produce a downstream effect on career choice.