COM Outlook Spring 2019

NOVA SOUTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY | 7 brought them to my office at 5:00 p.m. for a drive-thru kiss and a hug,” Lindley added. “I wonder what that male physician is doing right now. Most likely, he’s in bed sleeping while I have a headache and feel too wired up to go to bed despite being exhausted.” Although Lindley is a devoted wife and loving mother to her five children, she devotes ample time to her civic and professional obligations. “To give you an idea of how busy I am, I own a private practice, work 8 shifts a month in an urgent care facility, and do 30 hours of telemedicine each week,” said Lindley, who was recently elected to her local school board and is the president-elect of the Texas Society of the Ameri- can College of Osteopathic Family Physicians. LACK OF AWARENESS Lindley, who works 60-plus hours a week, said gender bias from her male peers is a byproduct of their lack of awareness of what female physicians with families deal with daily. “I often feel that male physicians do not understand the challenges of being a full-time physician, a mother, and a wife,” she said. “I have said on multiple occasions that once my workday ends, my real job starts. I come home to five children, start dinner, help them with their homework, get them bathed, do story time, and then put them to bed,” Lindley explained. “After a full day of work, all this can be quite daunting. Let’s be honest. Most male physicians do not have the same responsibilities at home that female physicians do. Am I generalizing? Maybe. However, I have watched my female colleagues deal with the same challenges as me, so I think this is still the norm.” While the female physicians interviewed for this article said they had not encountered extreme forms of gender bias, there have been instances where it was couched in a subtler, yet equally abhorrent, fashion. “During my residency training, it was common for the attending male physicians to release the female residents who had children earlier in the day than other members of the team,” said Jill Wallace-Ross, D.O., a KPCOM alumna and assistant dean of osteo- pathic clinical education. Interestingly, Wallace-Ross disclosed that the male physicians who had children were not offered the same option. Instead, the attending physician would make disparaging comments to the other residents about the fact that one or more of the female residents had left. “If we chose to stay, then we females heard what the attending was saying about the other female who did leave, which were statements that implied an inherent weakness, or less fortitude. The male residents received praise and admiration for staying, which led the male residents to take on some of the actions and words of the attending,” Wallace-Ross explained. “Looking back, the attending seemed to intention- ally push the male residents in terms of giving them the more-challenging, complicated patients, as well as having the male residents be the first choice to see a new consult,” she added. “Although our pay was the same, the intensity of the work with some of the male doctors was clearly uneven based on gender.” ‘OLD BOYS’ NETWORK According to Naushira Pandya, M.D., CMD, FACP, professor and chair of NSU-KPCOM’s Department of Geriatrics, some of the gender-biased actions described by Wallace-Ross can be attributed to what used to be referred to as the “old boys” network. “Many young men are not narrow-minded; however, male chairs and older administrators may still hold some biases,” Pandya explained. “I have usually had salaried “The attending seemed to intentionally push the male residents in terms of giving them the more-challenging, complicated patients.” —Jill Wallace-Ross, D.O.