As one of seven children, I have siblings in a diverse range of professional fields in various locations throughout the United States. Recently, one of my older sisters, who is currently in her residency for emergency medicine told me about a systematic injustice that she had faced that resonated with me. After finishing one of her shifts in the hospital, my sister and a few of her coworkers were leaving for the day, and as they were walking out of the hospital a man who was riding his bike was struck by a car right in front of them. Immediately, my sister and her coworkers ran to the man to administer medical treatment and make sure that he would be okay. While treating the man in the street, with her white coat still on from her shift, a bystander came over and yelled “can we get a doctor over here?!”
Even though my sister and her coworkers were wearing their white coats, which have their names and “M.D.” titles stitched into them, the bystander assumed that because they are women, they must be nurses and not doctors. In fact, the Canadian Medical Association Journal recently posted a peer-reviewed article detailing the commonality of female doctors being mistaken as nurses based on gender, as well as offering suggestions to those who experience this issue consistently. While this was just one incident, my sister has experienced a multitude of sexist, systemic injustices throughout her schooling and career in the medical field. First off, sexist injustices such as the discrimination my sister has faced are diminishing to all of the years of hard work that she, and every female doctor, have put in to earn their medical degrees. Additionally, sexism within the medical field leads to considerable barriers to entry for female doctors in particular fields that are male-dominated such as surgery. My sister has described that there were times in medical school, especially with regard to surgery, where the doctors would make my sister watch as the male medical student was welcomed to assist in operations.
I found this instance to be particularly relevant to de Beauvoir’s concept of “othering” and how it relates to implicit biases that individuals may unknowingly hold. Although the bystander may have believed he was helping out in the situation by yelling for a doctor, he was simply exemplifying an implicit bias that he held against women in the medical profession, as well as defining them as “the other.” Additionally, the many sexist instances that my sister has experienced in male-dominated medical fields such as surgery shows that there is a systemic bias in our society that defines women who are in the medical field as subordinate to men, thereby “othering” them within the profession.
Shockingly, an article by the Association of American Medical Colleges describes how a study “found that half of all women in medical school have experienced some form of sexual harassment, with gender harassment being the most common.” Given this fact, it is integral that we, as a society, explore different avenues to reduce sexism within medical professions, and recognize and eliminate implicit biases that may affect how one treats members of a specific group. For sexism within the medical professions to be “righted” or remediated, there would have to be a systematic shift in the social environment within the fields that would be difficult to achieve, but not impossible. For example, one step that could be taken to lessen discrimination based on gender in the medical field is re-training of doctors that have expressed any sexist or discriminatory viewpoints. Additionally, there should be a reliable and anonymous system through which individuals can report any sexist injustices committed by other doctors to the administrators of the hospital or medical school.
Owen, I loved this post. I was very engaged to continue reading the entire time. Being able to hear a story that has personally affected someone that you know makes this concept even worse. We all know that situations like this take place time after time, but to hear how sexism is relevant to anyone is concerning. I think that it is not fair that women’s abilities are looked down upon by others assumptions, and it is disheartening to think that these issues are still around today, when so many women have proven their ability to be worthy of heavy duty jobs. Similar to you, I wrote about the way women are mistreated in the workplace, and it is surprising to see the differences in the way both men and women are treated. Most everyone nowadays supports the ideas of gender equality, and empowering women, but it is simple occurrences such as this one to make all of that seem irrelevant.
This post was incredible, I truly felt that I understood the systematic injustice that you are portraying. I am currently studying to get enrolled in Medical School and I hope that I can be one of the doctors that doesn’t not show sexism. It os so upsetting that women are looked down upon in the Medical field. They are seen as inferior and basically seen as less than, which is disgusting to me. I think women have to work so much harder than men in the work industry. It is appalling, and it is a systematic injustice that needs to be reverted.