Gender debate as a challenge in nursing training.

Objectives: to understand the challenges of introducing gender debate in nursing training from undergraduate students' perspective.

Methods: a qualitative, exploratory-explanatory study. Data were collected through a semi-structured interview applied to 12 undergraduate nursing students at a public university in São Paulo. For data treatment and analysis, the Discourse of the Collective Subject was used in light of Boaventura de Sousa Santos' knowledge production paradigm theoretical framework.

Results: nursing education remains centered on the traditional scientific model, neglecting gender and strengthening stereotypes aimed at the feminization of the profession.

Final Considerations: nursing training has a challenge of implementing actions that deepen the gender theme. Therefore, some strategies are suggested, such as improving professor training and appropriating emancipatory pedagogical practices; reviewing pedagogical political projects; curriculum theorization and restructuring; problematizing gender issues for nursing leadership.