Thread by @kikumbhar

This is to say thanks to the many medicos who'v been, at great risk of bein abused by trolls, callin out misogyny & sexism in medical circles. Not to mention calling out religious & casteist bigotry which is as prevalent in the medical field as elsewhere in India today.

Thanks also to those who shared stories of how sexism & misogyny hav been trivialized & normalized in the profession (eg this tweet). Sad to see many medicos still refusing to acknowledge these issues & instead choosing to blame feminism, "wokeism" etc

https://twitter.com/doctorandall/status/1413401316131438596

I am sure ther r other medicos who desire to learn & expand their understanding. Since Twitter can be a tricky place to learn such stuff, esp with many so-called influencers actually being bigoted duds, talking directly to decent colleagues around is a better way to go.

I entered MBBS with a lot of problematic notions at age 18, many of which I abandoned in the course of 3-4 yrs, & many still later, mainly following helpful, enlightening conversations with fellow women friends & colleagues.

A pertinent historical example in this respect is about a common, normalized notion from the 1950s-60s: it was considered completely fine for eminent male doctors and commentators to say stuff like women medical students must resolve to "stay unmarried for ten more years.”

This 1953 statement, by a politician named HP Mody, stemmed from a v widespread belief that women doctors were "wasting" medical seats, because once they were married they had to look after "family responsibilities" and "exit" out of the medical profession.

Such "wisdom" obviously passed on to young medicos. In 1963 an MBBS grad remarked, in the student magazine of a college, that the number of women doctors in the country was reaching “alarming proportions.” He proposed reducing girl students’ admission numbers in medical colleges.

As we kno well from today's highly polarized world, just cz a lot of people believe in & normalize a concept, that doesnt mean its true or logical. In this case, ppl simply believed in lazy assumptions based on shaky anecdotal data, that married women docs left practice en masse

Despite the absence of strong evidence, this notion continued to hold sway, with even Defence Min VK Krishna Menon commenting on it in 1957.

Women docs of that period, however, made sure that they registered their protest against this awfully discriminatory & unfair discourse

The president of Bombay-based Association of Medical Women in India, eminent obgy Jerusha Jhirad, wrote at least two letters to the Times of India busting prevailing myths about women docs, using rational argumentation as well as survey data.

She showed, eg, that out of all women docs in Bombay, 60% happened to b married - & wer doin their job perfectly well. She wrote that ppl unfairly generalized d examples of a few women docs who had stopped practice & at the same time ignored examples of men doctors who did d same

While ppl arguing for capping women docs' numbers did believe they were being logical, even patriotic - the "nation" needed more efficient & practising doctors, after all - it is clear that they were jus acting on entrenched sexist attitudes & biased understandings.

The present-day posting of sexist memes etc by Twitter docs, & their refusal to back down, is one more manifestation of such entrenched attitudes in society & in d medical field. But while sexism has remained entrenched, it is true that resistance to it has also been consistent.

On my timeline, eg, it has been heartening to see the spirited resistance as well as informative explainers by @SonaliVaid @stethospeaks @doctorandall @RajaniSurendarB.

Clearly, the legacy of the Jerusha Jhirads lives on.