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Well said, Dr Dhara.
Of course female physicians are treated differently from male physicians, and not just in Family Medicine. That need not be a bad thing; but as you pointed out, it often is. Given the bias against Family Medicine, female Family Physicians get a double-whammy.
When during medical school training I told my Internal Medicine preceptor that I planned to apply to Family Medicine, the response was, "Too bad." I'm sure he meant it kindly, like "We're sorry you won't be applying to our program," but I notice he didn't say that, and he didn't say, "Lucky them," or the like. The implication was that my career would be the lesser for my choice.
I too have been criticized for not conforming. Particularly memorable is one Family Medicine preceptor assessing me as "Too assertive." I wonder whether he ever assessed the male residents that way.
In some ways our female colleagues are lagging behind our male colleagues in awareness around these issues. My male colleagues know better than to comment on my appearance it seems; but my female colleagues don't hold back. Again, I know it's meant kindly as they only ever make positive remarks; but it reinforces the stereotypes that women should be valued for attributes other than their competence in a professional setting.
It's great that we're able to point out some of these unfavourable differences...
Show MoreCompeting Interests: None declared. - Page navigation anchor for RE: Smile! Women as Family DoctorsRE: Smile! Women as Family Doctors
Bravo for your article Dr Dhara! As a fellow female family physician I wholeheartedly agree. I would also add that I often feel patients have different expectations of female family doctors in terms of time spent per office visit and physician warmth and empathy explicitly expressed during visits. I also often wonder if there is a different expectation in terms of payment for non insured services. Thank you for your article, it is a valuable contribution.
Yours truly,
Sarah ShawCompeting Interests: None declared. - Page navigation anchor for RE: Smile! Women as family doctorsRE: Smile! Women as family doctors
Dear CFP editor:
I have been moved by the gutsy and heartfelt “Smile” commentary written by Arundhati Dhara in the July edition of CFP. Moved enough to respond with an acknowledgement of her experience to mitigate the risk of minimizing an everyday experience for most if not all female physicians.
I suspect you debated Dr. Dhara whether it was even worthwhile to put your thoughts down- let alone think them. After all you are a practicing family physician and faculty member who role models and teaches future physicians. Why make a fuss, we might all say?
Well, I for one am glad you did. Firstly, you decided to reflect on why this incident got under your skin. That is notable when we as female physicians have become quite accustomed to what Beagan (1) refers to as micro-aggressions, throughout our training. These daily transgressions that communicate that we do not belong, or are not equal, has a cumulative effect that whittles away at self-image. Virtually every female physician experiences these events- none of them “big enough” or egregious enough to comment or complain. Just many - daily.The coping strategies we employ include self-blame ( I could read this all through your statement) , disengagement, desensitization and finally resignation. We call them coping but with the evidence that female medical students become less confident as their training proceeds (compared to our male colleagues whose self-confidence increases with training), ca...
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