I wasn’t sure if I should get involved in this but since my followers know that my grandfather is a retired gynecologist {in his 90s now} I guess I will. When he was practising, especially in the first few decades, there were very few female doctors outside of the capital city {he always practised in a provincial city, what would be a “town” in most countries I guess}. For most of the time that he was practising, there were no female gynecologists in that town. He was a truly great physician who saved many lives, oversaw many births, flaunted the laws constantly {abortion wasn’t legalised until the 80s here by which time he’d done hundreds – but even after partial legalisation he continued to do them illegally whenever necessary}, educated generations of men {patients’ husbands} about their responsibilities {something that in our culture they’d have ignored coming from a woman}, and was a compassionate, dedicated physician who was available to his patients 24/7 for half a century. He chose gynecology for reasons associated with his own family’s experiences of poor access to necessary care, not because he was a pervert {he is vehemently not a pervert}.
I grew up understanding that he did important work, and that he was a good person for doing it; and that his contribution to his community was invaluable. Everything he ever did, he did for the good of his patients. He lied to husbands as a matter of course; he encouraged patients to call him at home at any hour if they needed to; he lived less than a block from his clinic and considered it a second home.
But it’s 2017 now. There are tons of women in medical school. We don’t need men to do this work anymore. If my grandfather had been surrounded by female classmates going into gynecology, he wouldn’t have done it. He was concerned about what he perceived to be a gap in patient care – when he got into medicine, obstetrics in our country was largely “if the village midwife can’t handle it, the mother and baby will die, that is the way it is, it’s nature.” Gynecology was largely home remedies. Women had no one to go to when their husbands raped them. Abortion was dangerous and illegal.
Everyone chooses a specialty for personal reasons but the patients matter more than the doctor’s interests. If it’s better for the patients that gynecology, as a field, be stocked with women instead of men, male medical students should understand this and choose another field. There are absolutely women who prefer male gynecologists, so there ought to be a few in every city. But overall, there is little reason for men to choose this field anymore. I agree with OP. It is probably easy to assume I would disagree, especially knowing that I’m a male social worker who works in women’s issues primarily, but nothing I do is by mistake: there is work that men need to be doing to confront male violence, and there are men who simply refuse to listen to a voice that’s not a baritone. Still, I do not believe that gynecology needs more than a very few men, to cover those few patients who really do prefer a male doctor.
My grandfather agrees. One of the greatest happinesses for him in his life was to watch as his field became ever more populated by excellent female colleagues.
tangentwithtanner
ellievsbear
snowghoul
