Gender matters | |
Sex and medicine: gender, power and authority in the medical profession. Rosemary Pringle. Melbourne: Cambridge University Press 1998 (x + 240 pp.). ISBN: 0 521 57812 4. |
Sex and medicine is an incisive analysis of gender and power in medicine. Written from a sociological perspective, Rosemary Pringle, Professor of Women's Studies at Griffith University, examines the historical development of the modern medical profession and candidly and actively describes women in the profession in this context. Pringle has interviewed British and Australian doctors, describing women's views of the effects of their gender on their careers. While the patterns described become repetitious, the descriptions of the lives of women in the different specialties confirm the universality of their experiences. Ever present is the struggle to achieve a satisfying balance between work and family life. It is disheartening to see portrayed the lives of many women who have sacrificed much in their personal lives for their careers in a very conscious way. Equally striking is the depiction of how many female doctors have actively rejected the way success in a medical career is defined by their male counterparts but nevertheless found fulfillment and satisfaction in their lives. Missing from the book, however, are the active voices of men in the medical profession. It would be interesting to know if they feel as deeply about issues such as the effects of success on their personal lives. It was coincidental that while reading the book I encountered the article written by Gordon and Lyon in the MJA entitled As others see us: students' role models in medicine.1 One female medical student was quoted as saying: "What I would like to see is a female doctor who's managed to put everything together ... I actually haven't come across someone like that yet, but I would really like to just know it's possible." That student should read Sex and medicine. She may then realise that the way medicine is currently constructed means that her dream is probably unattainable. Comforting, however, is the knowledge that, with the increasing numbers of women entering the profession, different practice patterns will emerge, resulting in more 'human' doctors and a more 'humane' medical profession. Danielle Mazza
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