As the world awakens to the sexist and racist behaviours and actions against women, many victims have come forward with their experiences with the hope that people get to know that it doesn’t feel good to be discriminated against.
One field often overlooked is the medical field where women make up the majority of nurses and a few become doctors largely due to gender discrimination at various levels of the science field. [A good topic for another day]
A paper published last year in the Journal of Women’s Health on how women doctors are introduced at professional functions says male introducers use the formal title “doctor” 49.2 percent of the time when introducing female doctors while they use it 72.4 percent of the time for men.
A co-author of the paper, Dr. Julia Files, who is a physician and associate professor of medicine at the Mayo Clinic Arizona in Scottsdale, U.S.A, was inspired to write the paper after having several gender bias experiences among fellow doctors.
“I was really quite taken aback. I thought, Did that just happen? Am I being sensitive? Is it me? Did he do that? Did he mean to do that? This wasn’t the first time I’d been inappropriately addressed by my first name in a professional setting, but it was certainly the most public and glaring example,” Files told Newsweek in an interview.
The conclusion of her paper, which she wrote with 12 others after reviewing 321 introductions made at rounds at the Arizona and Minnesota Mayo Clinic locations, was:
“Subtle, yet pervasive practices, reinforcing the perception that women are of lower status than men, can negatively impact a woman’s career trajectory and her satisfaction with her career even if they are unintentional,” they write. “Unequal naming practices may amplify the issues of isolation, marginalization, and professional discomfiture expressed by women faculty in academic medicine.”
For General Practitioner and Obstetrician Doctor Penny Wilson who is in Australia, introducing yourself as a doctor, wearing an ID badge, draping a stethoscope around your neck and wearing a uniform that has “DOCTOR” embroidered on it have not prevented the assumptions from occurring.
She wrote her experiences in a blog post:
You enter a patient’s room and they are on the phone. They end their call by saying “I gotta go, the nurse is here to see me.”
You spend 45 minutes with a patient taking a history, performing an examination, taking bloods, explaining their diagnosis and management plan. Then they say “Ok, when do I get to see the doctor?”
Having to repeatedly deflect groping hands, flirty comments and admiring looks up and down from overly friendly male patients who care more about what you look like than what your job title is.
The situation is no different in Africa as some Nigerian female doctors expressed their frustration after a tweet by Twitter user Dr Chioma who posted: “Being a Female Doctor in Nigeria can be hard mehn. You will dress up in all your Full Doctors regalia with your male colleagues and Your patients will still call you Nurse. And when they realise they are wrong, they ask for the ‘Main Doctor’. I just ask for the main patient.”
This tweet received thousands of likes and hundreds of replies from other female doctors who started a conversation as they shared their experiences.
You finish a surgery and patient relatives commend the doctor (male scrub nurse) on a successful surgery.
— Kasai Kachiro (@cutest_lynn) January 16, 2018
It’s was cos I’m slim, they don’t even believe I’m a graduate.
— Dr Chioma (Zobo Sipper) (@Deekachy_md) January 16, 2018
It is terrible. One once told my consultant before surgery to remember that his child’s case is too serious for experiment. He said it while looking at me. My consultant told him I was in charge, on purpose. I just walked past and scrubbed in. Rabbish
— Dr Chioma (Zobo Sipper) (@Deekachy_md) January 16, 2018
Lol an owner of two hospitals, one of them a three storey mansion is still occasionally being called ‘Aunty Nurse ‘ ???
— Lidocaine (@trending_medic) January 16, 2018
For real mehn. I don’t doubt that at all. It’s not wrong to be a nurse o but that’s not who I am. Our people are still sexist. But I’m learning not to be bothered.
— Dr Chioma (Zobo Sipper) (@Deekachy_md) January 16, 2018
Imagine now being a smallie on top!! I don’t want to even imagine what small women go through in such fields.
— Yemi Web Master (@ScarTissue101) January 18, 2018
After 8years of med school, house job, service, 4 years of residency, and 6 years later my patients still called me “baby doctor”….
— Maduemezia C (@c_maduemezia) February 6, 2018
I can very much relate to this, have been called a ‘nurse’ so many times, sometimes I just ignore and other times I correct them.
I think it all stems from this mentality that guys are drs and females are nurses— jodumosu (@deejokkie) January 18, 2018
Read this entire thread in a Nigerian accent #VeryHappy????.
But seriously, being a woman in STEM in Africa is comedy and trouble. Pipo wld rather believe im in ‘administration’ than a researcher at outreach events, or ask a male colleague about MY work rather than me smh— Le Ecologist (@Mulako) January 18, 2018
Can’t count the number of times this has happened to me… If they don’t get the “Main Doctor” they comment “You’re very young. How old are you?” ??
Inner monologue *Smile and walk away
— Lynn K + (@mz_kayne) January 18, 2018
??. By the way Chioma, your narration suggests you think of nurses as a low level profession. Do you think they are less invaluable?
— Kunle Osinuga (@Kunlele3) January 18, 2018
Wow, beautiful.
As I just corrected someone above. I don’t think the situation is humiliating, just annoying. That they feel in the 21st Century, women cannot be Drs, just nurses. That is sexist. And that’s the purpose of this post. Trust Nigerians to make it about this?— Dr Chioma (Zobo Sipper) (@Deekachy_md) January 19, 2018
At least they should called you Dr. Nurse???
The problem is that there’s this mentality that Nurses are always women while Doctors are men, so just pardon them with patience, then while approaching them for the first time treatment u do ur introduction politely. More grace— Ndifreke Archibong (@Archtwitz) January 18, 2018
This doesn’t happen only in Nigeria. I was called nurse in Ghana when it was obvious I wasn’t wearing a nurses uniform and now in England after introducing myself as ‘the doctor attending to you today’ they still refer to me as nurse??? #womencanbedoctorstoo
— R.E.D S-J. Hiadzi (@Rushije_Hiadzi) January 18, 2018
Whenever they ask fr “main doctor” i just sit back n RELAX esp wen m d only one on call! Dey ll wait till WHENEVER my reg will show up. Sebi HE’s d “main doctor” ….?
— HoneyA (@lolasparkles) January 18, 2018
Oh, Some will think I’m joking till the nurse ushers in someone else.
After they are done waiting for the main Dr for hrs and realise I’m the only Main Dr around.. They come back with a sly apology. If I’m having a good day and still a have time I see them. Priceless moments
— Dr Chioma (Zobo Sipper) (@Deekachy_md) January 19, 2018
Was in an uber one day and i was sitting in btw 2 male friends both med students and i was d actual doctor in the car…the uber driver turned back and said *oh so u r going to luth doctor nurse doctor* i rated him 3 stars
— Beeblu (@beeblu94) January 17, 2018
I remember this lady at the hospital saying you’re the first person calling me “Dr” Without being corrected first in a while . Now I understand ?????. Bless you . I can only imagine
— Ezeoke Kay (@Kay_ezeoke) January 17, 2018
This right here is the problem. Most male nurses I know, don’t like being called doc. They will correct you. We are proud to be ourselves. We are unique and that’s what makes us stronger
— Dr Chioma (Zobo Sipper) (@Deekachy_md) January 19, 2018
Someone once told me, “Why must you use Dr? Why not Miss?”
Me: “May you not be denied of what you’ve rightfully earned.”
Them: no words
— OumissaInspire (@yazmeenS) January 17, 2018
Its sad being a young looking doctor
many times patients have asked me if i was a student doctor on I.T
and start asking for the real doctor
1 dude asked me to go call my boss to check his wife
i smiled and left, dude has to beg his head out before i saw her cos he was so rude— Elder Richy (Dr) (@Richtyns) January 16, 2018
They rather call you anything but Doctor. They call u Sister and even Aunty ?? Godforbid they say Doctor
— Kasai Kachiro (@cutest_lynn) January 16, 2018
Have you ever been told that you are too beautiful to be a doctor? Like, how did you have brains & time to study at all,with all that beauty? Or your fashion style is too good to pass for a Doctor! *My visiting elective experience*
— #ISUpportFeed2Grow (@Dazzlexalted) January 18, 2018
Lol right! I dumped my thick lenses for contact and my then consultant would keep asking me how I had the time to fleek my brow every morning. They don’t know some of us have super powers lol
— #ISUpportFeed2Grow (@Dazzlexalted) January 19, 2018
I was actually asked if I was a male nurse today for the first https://t.co/W0Oghp8m9n seriously??ain’t u seen a guy in scrubs before ni.ara oko ni lady yen https://t.co/P00a61eP6r
— Dr Tee (@drrejuvenated) March 7, 2018
The conversation goes on and on with young male doctors joining in to share their experiences of being called “too young”.
This clearly shows that education and enlightenment on sexist behaviours are needed and it should start from within the hospitals and medical facilities as it is evident that male doctors discriminate against female colleagues.
For the public, we need to solve the sexism from the root, which is through the children by taking the education to the classrooms which will go a long way to encourage more girls to have interest in medicine.
