Thread by @DrsMeena

1/ Every year, I give a talk that wipes me out-emotionally & mentally.
But it’s an impt talk to give: about the experience of women in medicine, academics, STEM.
It’s hard because it hits home; & because I answer any question & tell the truth.
Here are some facts; more in thread

2/ In medicine alone, there is high drop out of women as you go up the ranks.
And while marginally better over a 10 year period, it’s not even close to ACTUALLY better.
Why do so few women move up ranks?
Some of it should be apparent 👇.
For the rest--read on…

3/ This was an interesting study from HBR of 81K performance evaluations of men & women.
Look at the frequency of positive vs. negative reviews.
Now-look at how they were described.
(One word missing from here: bitch. Every woman has been called that. All of us.)

4/ As recently as the past two years, there have been ACCEPTED, PUBLISHED statements defending paying us less because we “don’t work as hard,” and arguing that any pro-bono, volunteer, advocacy work we do is NOT work.
(This isn't just a single guy-it's entire promotion processes)

5/ There was also THIS lovely gem recently—to “assess if female physicians can perform equivalently to male physicians with respect to emergency procedures.”
Let me be very clear when I say: if you ask that question, you can just FUCK OFF. Just FUCK. RIGHT. OFF.

6/ It is also demoralizing that no matter what we do, we get fewer NIH grants; and those grants are smaller than our male counterparts.
This stands for every type of institution (Big Ten to Ivy League); and every type of NIH grant.

7/ COVID made this worse.
I urge EVERYONE to read this brilliant open article co-signed by women in medicine and epidemiology at every level from across the world.
I wanted to cheer, but I was crying too hard-it hit home.
timeshighereducation.com/blog/women-sci…

8/ Women get called a lot of things in medicine, academics, science—but what’s the one thing we DON’T get called?
Doctor.
Even when we have multiple doctorate degrees.
(Trust me-I have the receipts.)

9/ All of us women have experienced ALL of this.
And it leaves long-lasting scars: on our job trajectory, on our CV…
…and then there are the scars you can’t see, but are just below the surface.
(why I’m so emotionally drained after speaking to folks about this.)

10/ If we are going to end this, we need to start with our future: our students, our trainees, our residents, fellows, junior faculty.
Because we need MEN to stand with us, stand up for us when this happens, and help us go higher.