A medical student has curated a list of sexist comments she’s received while training to be a doctor and placed the list on Twitter which has, understandably, gained traction.
Writing to Twitter with the #everydaysexism hashtag, the 24-year-old explained: “#everydaysexism is medicine – a thread of comments myself and my close friends have received whilst being medical students.”
Some of our favourites:
“In response to answering a question ‘oh good girl’ on multiple occasions. Surprisingly never heard ‘good boy’ being used for any of my male colleagues.”
“Third week of placement with a surgical team, arrived at a clinic in smart clothes with bright red ‘Medical Student’ lanyard. ‘Are you one of the student nurses?'”
“After introducing myself on a ward round as a medical student assigned to the team for the day: ‘She must be here to make the sandwiches’ – huge laughs from the all-male team.”
The student finished her post, “Sexism in medicine is still very much an issue and something that shouldn’t just be accepted as ‘a joke’. I don’t know a single one of my male colleagues who has been mistaken for a nurse, called a derogatory nickname, been called ‘something nice to look at.”
“If someone on the street spoke to me like that, I would always call them out,” she continued. But when I’m on placement there’s no way I would in case it affected my career. Doctors wouldn’t let you shadow them if you spoke back.
“I’ve studied for seven years and I deserve to be here. The older generations need to be educated that this behaviour just isn’t acceptable. It’s not just students that have to put up with this, but members of hospital staff, too.”
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