My Feminist Radar

I settled back into my seat and watched the debacle unfold before me. All I needed was a bag of popcorn and a soda.

No, I'm not talking about a movie here, a show, or even a baseball game.

I'm talking about this morning's M & M conference --- or, as it is known in the surgery world --- the weekly Mortality and Morbidity conferences. I watched three female residents walk confidently up to the podium, present their patients, and discuss what went wrong and what they would do differently next time. Clearly, each woman is bright, articulate, and savvy in front of a large room of mostly white males.

I wasn't bothered so much by the fact that the attending (staff physician or professor) interrupted each resident every 10 - 15 seconds and interjected a question or a tidbit of knowledge that had he just waited five more seconds, he would have learned his answer. I also wasn't too ruffled by the quibbles among staff about what should have been done erupt into frank yelling ... there were plenty of Monday morning quarterbacks at our Tuesday meeting.

Rather, it was in the way he chose to address the women as compared to the men.

At one point, he strode to the blackboard and proceeded to draw the lower abdominal vasculature that had been operated upon in the case we were discussing and commented, "Well, now, Dr. Smith* (male) did this, and you, Sara*, you chose to do this ... " (* Names have been changed.)

Sara? As if she had not also earned her medical degree?

In a world where women often are second fiddle, where equal education does not mean equal pay, and where women as politicians, chief executives, and top academicians, are few and far between (and most certainly not for lack of want or hard work), I was upset by his mannerisms toward all of the female physicians. I wouldn't have been so bothered had I not already witnessed in my first seven days on surgery other negative behaviors toward women --- including one fellow (male) who squirted saline at a new female scrub nurse when she did not hand him the appropriate surgical instrument in a non-emergent case. Unacceptable.

I am not advocating here for women to be appointed to positions simply because of their sex --- absolutely not. I'm talking about a nationwide, systemic, and interdisciplinary issue that often manages to delay or derail women from achieving what they are capable ... if they so choose the challenge.

In life, it's important to pick important battles. And for me, both personally and professionally, women's access to equal opportunity is near and dear to me ... and I am ready for the challenge.