radexcel Posted July 10, 2014 Report Share Posted July 10, 2014 Hi everyone, I am a female med student and am curious about whether other women in medicine have experienced this as well......but I have come across a few female attendings who are rude/harsh for no apparent reason towards me, but are totally different around my male counterparts. I am sure it's not a competency related issue, it seems to be right from the get go. And no matter how competent I prove myself to be, they're just extra nice to the guys but cold towards me. Have others experienced similar situations as well? Is it basically a girl hates girl sort of deal? (I do realize it's not necessarily an issue of my gender, perhaps these attendings have just not liked something else about me, but I'm just curious about whether it's well known that sometimes female attendings can be extra harsh on female students for no reason) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NLengr Posted July 10, 2014 Report Share Posted July 10, 2014 Hi everyone, I am a female med student and am curious about whether other women in medicine have experienced this as well......but I have come across a few female attendings who are rude/harsh for no apparent reason towards me, but are totally different around my male counterparts. I am sure it's not a competency related issue, it seems to be right from the get go. And no matter how competent I prove myself to be, they're just extra nice to the guys but cold towards me. Have others experienced similar situations as well? Is it basically a girl hates girl sort of deal? (I do realize it's not necessarily an issue of my gender, perhaps these attendings have just not liked something else about me, but I'm just curious about whether it's well known that sometimes female attendings can be extra harsh on female students for no reason) I'm not gonna say much except that I have heard your complaint from multiple other females in medicine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mandibular Posted July 10, 2014 Report Share Posted July 10, 2014 I cant comment on female attendings but female nurses are alot rougher on female clerks compared to men Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Birdy Posted July 10, 2014 Report Share Posted July 10, 2014 Welcome to the world of female office politics. It is not at all limited to medicine. Don't expect it to get much better. :-/ Considering the systemic crap that women still put up with in many fields, it continues to surprise me how quick many women will be to tear apart the others they work with, but I have seen it in most places I have worked. I don't play those games and if I'm in a position where I can do something about it I'll call someone on crappy behaviour, but a lot of the time you just have to suck it up and deal with it because you aren't in a position to change anything. It's not just a work thing either. Wait until you have kids. "Mommy wars" suck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Starfish31415 Posted July 11, 2014 Report Share Posted July 11, 2014 That is really unfortunate to hear OP. The sad is that it's probably self-perpetuating as well. That is, the same female attendings were treated unfairly during their medical school/residency years, and now they treat you more harshly because they themselves had to work harder to get where they are now Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pagan Posted July 11, 2014 Report Share Posted July 11, 2014 Maybe you're too pretty, and they're jealous. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Renin Posted July 11, 2014 Report Share Posted July 11, 2014 I hear it's fairly common and I make a mental note to be equally fair to all of the people I work with, regardless of their gender. I haven't experienced this in my current residency location, but I have had this experience in medical school. I generally prefer male attendings to female, but in the last two years of my residency, I have had awesome attendings both male and female! There are definitely snarky people out there - but they're both male and female. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jdoc18 Posted July 23, 2014 Report Share Posted July 23, 2014 What you are experiencing is very common unfortunately! I have had several female bosses that treated the males significantly better than the females. I have also noticed the same thing with teachers: female teachers treat the male students a lot better than the female students. Not sure exactly why this is the case but I wouldn't take it personally.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fugacity Posted July 23, 2014 Report Share Posted July 23, 2014 There are definitely snarky people out there - but they're both male and female. This. A friend of mine (female) and I shared the same preceptor. She could do no wrong in his eyes, while I got scolded a lot. He is one of those more traditional/conservative preceptors, so this was somewhat expected. There isn't much you or I can do about it. Pretend it doesn't exist and move on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trojjanhorse Posted July 24, 2014 Report Share Posted July 24, 2014 Maybe you're too pretty, and they're jealous. Glad to know I wasn't the only one who thought this. That's Mac thinking right there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LostLamb Posted July 26, 2014 Report Share Posted July 26, 2014 Either incredibly lucky or just not pretty. I haven't run into these issues with any nurses or attendings so far during my training. *knock on wood* There's always the issue that some people will be rude/mean/assert certain attitudes towards others. Don't take it personally, do your job, and if you have it in you--do call them out on it, but in the most sensitive way as possible. Of course this is easier said than done, particularly when there is a power differential... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fresh fry Posted July 26, 2014 Report Share Posted July 26, 2014 I have run into a different problem. As an older male many times when I have a female preceptor the patient pays more attention to me and looks at me during encounters when I am present. This is especially true if the patient is older or from another country and it happens even when the preceptor identifies me as "their medical student". This sometimes infuriates the female preceptor even when I try to do everything to shift focus off myself. A similar problem is when I am with a young-looking resident, male or female. I don't think anyone has a monopoly on the perfect age-race-gender combination, they all have their ups and downs with different preceptors and in different situations. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
uwopremed Posted July 26, 2014 Report Share Posted July 26, 2014 Well, from family I have heard varying dynamics. In surgery, many attendings at Western and male residents use the term UPF. It stands for Uterine Protective Factor - and probably exists everywhere else. It means that in terms of being 'disciplined' for lack of knowledge or poor display of skill or issues with time off (even in regards to call) -the female residents get off way easier. It's partially because many male surgery staff are not sure how to deal with large numbers of female surgical residents (as it is still relatively new), but mainly because of fear of being labelled sexist. Ironically, it means that less effective constructive feedback might go to female surgical residents which is hurtful. In terms of females treating females poorly - I don't know. Most medical schools have female majorities to begin with, some massively so (Ottawa and McMaster). So really hard to imagine a female staff treating all her female students poorly - just doesn't make sense. My gut feeling is that the OP somewhat expected some sort of special bond with a female staff person - and that staff person didn't care at all about the gender of her medical student. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
designed Posted July 27, 2014 Report Share Posted July 27, 2014 Well, from family I have heard varying dynamics. In surgery, many attendings at Western and male residents use the term UPF. It stands for Uterine Protective Factor - and probably exists everywhere else. It means that in terms of being 'disciplined' for lack of knowledge or poor display of skill or issues with time off (even in regards to call) -the female residents get off way easier. It's partially because many male surgery staff are not sure how to deal with large numbers of female surgical residents (as it is still relatively new), but mainly because of fear of being labelled sexist. Ironically, it means that less effective constructive feedback might go to female surgical residents which is hurtful. In terms of females treating females poorly - I don't know. Most medical schools have female majorities to begin with, some massively so (Ottawa and McMaster). So really hard to imagine a female staff treating all her female students poorly - just doesn't make sense. My gut feeling is that the OP somewhat expected some sort of special bond with a female staff person - and that staff person didn't care at all about the gender of her medical student. Your last sentence -- I think that's simply the way things should be. I'm actually not quite understanding the situation. Why would female attendings/residents treat female medical school students poorly? What is the motivation behind this type of behaviour? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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