Gender Biased in Medicine

Throughout this course, we learned that women’s studies originated as a concern at the time that “women and men noticed the absence, misrepresentation, and trivialization of women [in addition to] the ways women were systematically excluded from many positions of power and authority” (Shaw, Lee 1). In the past, men had more privileges than women. Women have battled for centuries against certain patterns of inadequacy that all women experience. Every culture and customs has divergent female

Throughout history, women have been regarded as of lesser value than men particularly in the public sphere. This is the result of gender stratification. Gender stratification refers to the issue of sexism, “or the belief that one sex is superior to the other” (Carl et al., 2012, p. 78). The theory that men are superior to women is essential to sexism. Sexism has always had negative consequences for women. It has caused some women to avoid pursuing successful careers typically described as “masculine”—perhaps to avoid the social impression that they are less desirable as spouses or mothers, or even less “feminine.”

Not only are the dominations of women and nature both patriarchally justified through the logic of domination, but the historical and social realistic conceptions of gender and nature are also both socially fabricated.

As per research ‘gender’ provides a perspective from which one could examine the biases that exist in the larger society. Some believe that to arrive at a more eloquent understanding of the problems of women in science , one should begin by asking what is the nature of science space that leads to under-representation and marginalisation of women rather than questioning the situation of a woman’s life that makes it difficult for her to pursue science.

According to Garbacik (2013), in Ancient Egypt, Ancient Japan, American Indians and Ancient Sumerian women were held in high regard, taking up “leadership posts” and were not considered “inferior” by their male counterparts. In fact, the terms “misogyny” and “Patriarchy” became more prominent in Victorian Britain, where the concept of “gender roles” were closely linked, which advocated female subordination and male dominance. In particular, through his ground-breaking theory of natural selection, Darwin (1859) depicted women as being inferior to men. Darwin theorised about “natural selection” and he suggested that men were “more courageous, pugnacious and energetic” (Darwin, 1859) than women. Darwin also never included species such as “hyenas, anglerfish, ring-tailed lemurs, black widow spiders, meerkat and praying mantis” (Garbacik, 2013) in his research that never shared dominant male and passive female characteristics, proving that his evidence was flawed, advocating a confirmation bias . What’s more, Darwin’s views of the female and male species, were bolstered in the 19th century, by the Victorian viewpoints that men were more “competitive” and “aggressive” compared to women who were more “altruistic” and “nurturing”. Not only was inequality amongst the sexes

Eliza Gamble “Supremacy of the Male” was published in 1916. She was an advocate to woman and was active in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Many of her arguments were geared towards Darwin’s point of view of man being ultimately superior over woman. Women have basic functions and characteristics as dictated by nature through evolution. Women are capable of social and emotional intelligence. They also play an important role as human beings and have various characteristics that are represented and essential to mankind. The social roles are an important factor and these issues affect women.

“The world is still sexist.” — Barbara Broccoli. From the creation story to modern day, women and men still struggle with a power dynamic of inferiority and superiority. The problem of sexism has been ever-present throughout history, and although it has been acknowledged by many, it has not been eradicated or resolved. Although the acknowledgment of sexism has grown over the course of the modern era, it is heavily rooted in society’s developmental process, which makes it continuously difficult to annihilate. Furthermore, throughout many historical texts, women are often represented as objects instead of real people. Within texts, such as the Epic of Gilgamesh, the Bible, the Quran, and the Torah, women are constantly regarded as inferiors instead of equals with men. Throughout these texts, there is a clear separation between the treatment of men and women, with women always being referred to as property.

Around the mid-nineteenth century until today’s times, three beliefs about women and men has become a major aspect for part of biology

The commonly held theories that women are inferior to men, because they lack the strength of character, mind, and body that men are attributed to having, are misleading for many reasons. To assume that men are superior in these three aspects is to assume that all men and women equally share the same strengths and weaknesses of their entire sex. To do this one must accept the fact that all

The field of medicine has been constantly progressing through the centuries with surgery, as one of its most fundamental structure of medicine. Cutting people open to find the harm and relieving them of it. But as the field of surgery progress over time; the surgical environment has developed a gender sphere that makes it difficult for women to become surgeons. The glass ceiling is a political metaphor that exists to explain the gender disadvantages within disciplined jobs (The Glass Ceiling Effect*). Women today, regardless of their qualifications face an obstacle that “appear[s] to be a distinctively gender phenomenon” (1) in any highly disciplined jobs, especially in the field of surgery.

in the government of the physical world it is observable that the female in point of strength is, in general, inferior to the male. This is the law of Nature; and it does not appear to be suspended or abrogated in favour of woman. A degree of physical superiority cannot, therefore, be denied, and it is a noble prerogative! (Wollstonecraft, 111).2

Gender Inequality is when men and women are separated by the belief that one gender is superior to the other in forms that deny full participation or restrictions to one’s ability to live an equal life. Ever since the dawn of time there has been one gender superior to the other and to this day there are still gender differences in the political, economical and physical life of a male versus a female. Charlotte Perkins Gilman is one theorist that I chose to help explain this trend of males having power over women. Gilman was an evolutionist theorist; her point of view helps me explain how gender inequality came about and how women are viewed during the late

In the book, Susan Griffin, compares women and earth to man. She sheds light on feminism, female oppression, destruction of nature, and lastly the inequality that exist between men and women. The principal focus of the book is to show the connection between women and nature, and the disparities between men and nature. After years of conducting research she concludes that women and men inequality, science, language, and tradition have shape men masculinity as the ultimate power, drawing a line between man and nature.

Not only have capital punishment charges proven to be racially biased, they have also proven to be gender bias. The number of men sentenced to an execution is much higher than that of women. In between the years 1973 and 2002, only 1.2% of people executed were women and as of 2002, only 1.4% of 3,557 prisoners on death row are women (Reza, 2005). In her journal, Duke Journal of Gender Law and Policy, Reza seeks to explain why these facts exist. One reason women make up such a small percent could be because of the “chivalry hypothesis” which implies that women are passive and weak making them a less threat to society. Because women are seen as passive, they are found to be more compliant with rehabilitation than men. This chivalry hypothesis sees the death penalty as the largest penalty for going against the law, but it “offers rewards and protection for those women whose crimes conform to gender stereotypes” (Reza, 2005). The second reason Reza provides is called the “evil woman.”  This theory suggests that women who commit crimes are not only punished for the crime but also punished for going against the stereotype set for women. The idea that a woman can be punished more harshly for doing something that does not fit up to the ladylikeness that is expected of women, is very unfair due to the fact that women have the same motives the men that violate the same law. Lastly, another major gender bias seen in the death penalty can be described by the statutory bias. Although it

One of the most debated topics in modern society today is equality. Most everyone agrees that all people are equal, however, most everyone is also implicitly biased about genders whenever it comes to careers. For example, imagine for a moment a random piano teacher. What gender did you automatically think of them as? You more than likely initially imaged a female piano teacher. Now, imagine a random surgeon/ doctor. What gender did you automatically see them as? You probably imaged them as a male. If so, you are experiencing implicit gender bias. Unfortunately, you are not alone in this; society itself implicitly assigns males to scientific careers and women to liberal arts. Implicit bias are the completely unconscious stereotypes and attitudes we have towards society that affects our decisions and understanding of things. The key word in that definition is unconscious. Most people do not even realize they hold this bias; you might not have even realized you were experiencing this bias until reading this paragraph. This ignorance is one of the main reasons this bias is still occurring on a daily basis to most of humanity, and it is the main reason there is such a gender divide in careers today. It is hypothesized that helping people identify their implicit bias (specifically gender career bias) and providing them with basic education and strategies on the topic itself will reduce their gender career bias.