VICDOC Autumn 2023 - Magazine - Page 39
PERSONAL
OUTLOOK
I WAS BROUGHT UP IN A HOUSEHOLD WHERE
MY PARENTS NEVER DIFFERENTIATED BASED
ON GENDER.
I THINK MEDICINE IS VERY SEXIST. THE ORIGINS
OF WESTERN MEDICINE ARE PATRIARCHAL;
WOMEN WERE NURSES AND MEN WERE DOCTORS.
—
There was never a moment where I
didn't think I could do whatever I wanted.
At school I would be taken to women in
science events and I was perplexed as to
why they existed because of course, women
could be scientists and mathematicians
or whatever else they wanted. It wasn't
until I was in my twenties that I started to
understand structural barriers and how they
applied me and my own career progression.
I was the second woman in plastic
surgery training in Victoria to have a
baby during training – ever.
I was told repeatedly that there was
no way to be a good registrar and a good
mother. I had six weeks off work and then
didn't breastfeed or express at work with
my first child, because I was told that I
wouldn't get breaks during long cases. A lot
of that has changed. The female network
is much stronger and many structural
protections now exist. But if I can be blunt,
some attitudes haven't really changed and
to achieve genuine equity, they need to.
—
Women were excluded from the
planning and establishment of healthcare
systems. In fact, we still don't regularly
conduct clinical trials on female subjects
because of the menstrual cycle might alter
the results. We understand illnesses by the
symptoms men get, and miss diagnoses in
women. Only 12 per cent of surgeons in
Australia and New Zealand are women.
In orthopaedic and cardiothoracic surgery,
that figure is as low as five per cent. Our
surgical instruments were designed by
men for men, so if you have smaller
hands, they are harder to use.
We know that there is a hierarchy of
advantage and disadvantage, and that
women of colour are situated towards
the bottom of that pyramid.
Privilege is not about whether or not
life is easy or hard for you, it’s about
whether or not there are demographic
characteristics that you can’t change that
contribute to how you are perceived,
judged, and supported within the systems
we live and work in. I am a woman of
colour but I belong to a model minority
and I acknowledge that there are many
who face greater discrimination within
the healthcare profession. We need to
think about how we give value to things,
such as being ‘Australian trained’ or the
assumptions we make about people, such
as how they speak English. Healthcare
workers should reflect the communities
we serve.
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