Always a Nurse, Never a Doctor

Introduction

Female admittance into medical school has been historically lower to that of men because of psychological and biological assumptions, legal dependencies, and sociocultural beliefs. The inference that females are subordinate to males because of their assumed natural inabilities is a prime example of this. We want to research why, although women are equally capable of achieving medical degrees and pursuing careers in the medical field, they are vastly outnumbered by males and face adversities in their medical pursuits. We plan to accomplish this by interviewing three female physicians in the Atlanta area and comparing their experiences to articles such as, “The Sexual Politics of Interpersonal Behavior,” "Women and Doctors in Medicine,” and “Women in Medicine: A New Paradigm.” Through these readings, we can gain a better perspective on why the struggle of female physicians is a women’s issue. Women can potentially have their aspirations of being a medical professional limited because society generally views women as inferior in relationships. If we are to interpret this to include doctor-patient relationships, then this is obviously a limiting quality because either the patient might not take the female seriously, or those educating aspiring doctors might not encourage the female students in the same way that they do their male counterparts. There is also a stereotype that women are easily susceptible to becoming stressed and self-doubting in their medical pursuits. This relates to the presumption that female physicians may be hesitant to perform procedures and/or undermine their own abilities. This lack of confidence can be a serious issue when it comes to treating patients and possibly even saving lives. In addition, it is described that one possible reason for the drastic gap in numbers is failing attitudes of female aspirants; many women simply feel that because of social stereotypes, it is next to impossible to achieve the same medical degree as a man.

Purpose of Research

We would like to research the adversities women face in the medical field by interviewing three female physicians in various fields of medicine. These women are Dr. Linda Ritter, anesthesiologist, Dr. Charlotte Shaak, pediatrician, and Dr. Brooke Corbett, dentist. By interviewing women in different fields, we feel that we will obtain a more holistic view of the struggles and obstacles women face in their medical pursuits. We plan to focus on the gender discrimination women face in the admission process to medical schools, adversities faced while in medical school, and issues they are still facing today. As they practice medicine, we intend to inquire about how their patients feel about them being females and how they are observed by other male physicians. Furthermore, we want to ask their opinion on the progression of the medical field in regards to gender. Do they feel that the medical field is improving in its female numbers? Are the obstacles women face being lessened? What does the increase in female doctors over the years mean in terms of medicine? In terms of feminism?

Interviews

Dr. Linda Ritter

Dr. Linda Ritter is an anesthesiologist working at St. Mary’s Hospital in Athens, Georgia. She works in a group with male physicians in varying fields. Some of the striking examples of adversity and stories Dr. Ritter shared with us revolved around coworkers and the application process. At medical school, only 20 of the 180 students were female. When she went to interview for her first job, the male interviewers asked her what she would plan to do if she ever got pregnant. Dr. Ritter was taken aback, knowing that men applying were probably not being asked the same question. Furthermore, the issue of women taking time off of work for maternity leave was a major concern Ritter addressed. When Dr. Ritter was faced with medical problems, including a hysterectomy, she received little cooperation from her employers. Time taken off work for maternity leave and female health complications had to be taken without pay or from future years’ vacation time. A second example that seemed to be prevalent throughout all three interviews was the treatment Dr. Ritter received from older doctors and patients. Once she entered a room to examine an elderly man and he assumed she was the nurse and asked for the doctor. She stated that people of earlier generations tend to be more struck by seeing a female physician. She gave several other examples of how older patients were confused by her status and seemed uncomfortable entrusting her with their health. However, younger generations seem far more comfortable with female doctors and, often times, prefer them for their similar experiences in their own lives and caring natures. A final example of Dr. Ritter’s views of women in medicine was when she joined a medical practice. She recommended some well-qualified female doctors for the practice and was refused, being told by her male colleagues that they “didn’t see a need for another female” in the group. While Dr. Ritter has experienced adveristies in her career, her general observation of women in medicine is overall positive. These days, she believes that the medical field is a solid representation of gender equality. She has noticed that over time, females have had an increasingly strong presence in the medical field and encourages both men and women capable of the work to pursue a career in medicine.

Dr. Charlotte Shaak

Dr. Charlotte Shaak completed medical school at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. She currently works as a pediatrician at Northside Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia as part of the newborn nursery. She explained several adversities that she has faced during her time in medical school and career as a female physician. One example she mentioned was during one of her internal medical rotations, where she was one of two females in a group of five. Most of the questions were directed at the three males and when grades came out, the men received A's while the women received D's. She went on to explain that this experience prevented her from making it into the medical school honor society. Although she felt that she had faced several obstacles, she noted that this was not the case when applying to medical school. She stated that there were 33 females out of 125 in her medical school class, but this was mainly because there were not many females applying to medical school. The last comment that she made was that most people feel that males are the only recognizable doctors. However, she explains that the only way to overcome this, is to simply ignore it because “there are many people that think it's great” and that “many people would much rather see a female doctor than a male doctor.” Dr. Shaak said that she sees the medical field improving in terms of gender. She added that there are many more opportunities in certain fields that allow women to pursue a medical career as well as have a family and that the field has changed dramatically in order to encourage females to pursue their medical career.

Dr. Brooke Corbett

Dr. Brooke Corbett is a practicing dentist and mother of one child. She graduated from the University of Georgia in 2001 and completed her medical degree at University of Alabama Birmingham medical school in 2006. Dr. Corbett is employed part time as a dentist but devotes most of her time to being a mother. We asked Dr. Corbett to share with us an example of adversity or discrimination that she faced in her pursuit to become a dentist, and she quickly recalled a specific experience with a professor at her medical school. The professor made the point that when he graduated from school 30 years ago there were 200 graduating dentists in his class, but he made a point to subtract the 20 female medical students from that number, and so he considered his graduating class to have 180 dentists. So, for Dr. Corbett’s class which truly contained 60 graduating dentists, he claimed that there were only 40 graduating dentists. The professor made this point twice, which Dr. Corbett claimed was aimed to make the female medical students seem unimportant. She made a point that she has not personally faced adversity in regards to her gender in dealing with patients, but stated that her friends do face adversity in their smaller rural communities in Alabama. In addition, Dr. Corbett is relatively young for a practicing dentist and some patients are worried by her age. However, many patients prefer a younger dentist such as herself. She also noted that she will occasionally face sexist remarks from older male dentists when she meets with them at the various dental associations because they usually assume she’s an assistant and look down upon the fact that she works part time to raise a child. Fortunately, Dr. Corbett said she did not face much adversity for applying to medical school because the school was looking for diversity. Dr. Corbett feels that the medical industry, in terms of women, was certainly improving at a steady rate. She said that her class only around 20% female, but when she graduated, the entering freshman class percentage of male to females was 50%. From this feedback from Dr. Corbett, we can incur that the number of women in the medical field is on the rise.

Conclusion

Our research has brought us to the conclusion that the medical field is progressing in terms of gender. The gender gap once represented by doctors is closing rapidly and female physicians are becoming more prevalent. Though all three of the physicians we interviewed were able to give examples of adversity they had faced or witnessed, the overall impression was that the obstacles and adversities weren't outlandish or seriously detrimental to their medical pursuits. Today, females are encouraged to join the medical field and the male to female ratio has seemed to balance out. The trend in statistics correlates with the observations of each of our interviewees. This means that the stereotypes and stigma of medical careers are being broken down and giving both genders equal opportunities and recognition in their occupational pursuits. This exemplifies positive feminism as the barriers and adversities faced by women are being overcome and diminished. Nowadays, the gender of one's physician doesn't seem to be nearly as important as the physician's ability to help the patient.

Group Reflection

Our group felt that this project was complex, but successful. First and foremost, our topic proved to be challenging to coordinate. Working with doctors’ schedules proved to be difficult and the holidays posed even more scheduling conflicts. Because of the busy lifestyle of physicians, we struggled to find doctors willing to take time to speak with us. Also, it seemed that many didn’t want to go on record speaking on the topic of gender discrimination in their places of work. However, our three interviews were overwhelmingly optimistic. All three of our interviewees felt that medicine is moving in the right direction, with more equal numbers of men and women in the field. Also, the younger generations show no signs of gender preference or discrimination towards their physicians. Though the doctors may have overcome adversity, they attest that the gender gap is growing infinitely smaller in the field. Seeing this firsthand was very empowering for our group. We were able to hear the changes of medicine over time directly from women who had experienced such change. All three women were amazing human beings and we benefited from their time with us.