Hey blondie, make us some sarnies! Medical student’s sexism ordeal... at hands of doctors
SHE was hoping for the encouragement she needed in her quest to be a surgeon. Instead, medical student Hannah Yard says she met a barrage of sexism.
She claims she was advised to dye her blonde hair brown if she wanted to be taken seriously in the profession.
And a group of male doctors laughed as one said she ‘must be here to make the sandwiches’ during a placement at one hospital.
Others referred to her as ‘nurse’ even after she had introduced herself as a student doctor. She gave up on her dream of being a surgeon after she was told by a registrar it was ‘nice to finally have something to look at across the operating table’.
Miss Yard, 24, from Southampton, completed a degree in pharmacology and then chose to continue her studies at Cardiff University. She is now in the fourth year of a postgraduate medicine course there and has been on placement in hospitals across South Wales.
She has compiled a list on social media of the ‘everyday’ sexism she has encountered in her training. She says she has been mistaken for a nurse, nicknamed ‘Blondie’ and repeatedly called ‘good girl’ when she answered questions correctly. Miss Yard said: ‘Surprisingly never heard “good boy” being used for any of my male colleagues.’
Of the sandwich jibe, she said: ‘That made me want to cry. I was only 21 and being laughed at by a big group of men.’ A female colleague seeking a career in anaesthetics was told she could not juggle that with having children, she added. It is the latest sexism row to hit the medical profession.
This month the British Medical Association began an investigation into allegations of sexual harassment in its GP committee. Female doctors accused senior members of the BMA of sending unsolicited naked pictures and publicly joking about colleagues’ bra sizes.
Miss Yard says she was told to ‘go brunette’ at an open day for a postgraduate medicine course at the University of Bristol, when she was choosing where to study. She says she was told by a member of the admissions team that she needed to make sure she ‘came across the right way’.
‘When I asked what he meant, he said that to be taken seriously in medicine I probably needed to dye my hair brunette,’ Miss Yard said. ‘I was shocked, I couldn’t believe someone would say that to me. 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”.’ She felt she could not answer back in case it affected her career.
Adanna Anomneze-Collins, who chairs the BMA’s UK medical students conference, said: ‘For medical students, being exposed to such outdated and disrespectful attitudes can have a profoundly negative effect, not just on their wellbeing and mental health, but on the way they view the profession. We cannot allow such behaviour to deter talented female medics from pursuing careers as doctors.’ The University of Bristol said it is ‘fully committed to being a place where everyone feels safe, welcomed and respected’.
Cardiff University said: ‘We are extremely concerned by the allegations and would encourage anyone who has experienced any of these issues to raise them through our formal complaints procedure. Our students should be treated with dignity, courtesy and respect.’
‘I was shocked and couldn’t believe it’