Sexism In The Workplace Essay

While the gender wage gap has become increasingly prevalent in social and political discussions and is finally being acknowledged, an even more threatening, but rarely discussed topic is emerging regarding a gender pain gap that exists as well. Sexism in the workplace is one thing, but sexism when it comes to our health, our urgent care? This could be the difference between life and death. Women who present signs of pain are likely to receive less treatment, wait longer for doctors, and are generally treated as second-class citizens. Race and poverty also feed into bias in healthcare, but there is

no shortage of ways in which women are discriminated against in medicine.

Women in acute pain are found to be left to suffer for longer in hospitals, and they are even more likely to be misdiagnosed with mental health problems due to the common stereotypes that women are ‘emotional’ even when clinical results show their pain is valid.

They are also consistently given less time than male patients from hospital staff due to men’s complaints being seen as more important. A reason for this may be that doctors wrongly perceive women as being more irrational or emotional than men, and therefore dismiss their complaints over pain as being ‘all in the mind.’ Clinical studies have also found that doctors are more likely to think a woman’s pain is caused by emotional issues rather than physical causes, even in the presence of clinical tests which clearly validate their pain as being real and in many cases even go so far as to sedate the female patient rather than treat her pain. This may also connect on how society feels uncomfortable with ‘emotional’ women and will actively seek to calm their loud or chaotic behavior through sedation, above actually addressing the cause of their distress. By way of contrast, a 2011 report on chronic pain from the Institute of Medicine found that women were more likely to suffer from pain than men and had an overall higher tolerance for it. Regardless, in all cases, their pain was more likely to be minimized by health professionals. And when questioned by the National Pain Report, out of a sample population of 2,400 female chronic pain sufferers, 90% of them reported feelings of gender discrimination by their health care

providers.

This bias seems to create more serious problems in an emergency room setting. On average men wait a significantly less about of time than women before receiving medication for acute abdominal pain. This can be problematic, since pain is self-reported and is relatively subjective. To properly treat and control pain, doctors have to trust that the person is being truthful and describing pain accurately. The National Women's Health Resource Center reports that women with chronic pain often have trouble convincing doctors of the severity of their pain and as a result, are more likely than men to have their pain under-treated.

Beyond the studies, there are also individual stories that conclude that this gender bias does exist. Numerous women have reported doctors being condescending or not taking their symptoms seriously. Women say they are often told their symptoms are just in their head, but that doesn’t seem to always translate when it comes to men’s healthcare experiences. Convincing a doctor to take your symptoms seriously  is no easy battle. So it isn’t surprising that many women

are reluctant to speak up about their medical concerns in the first place, because no one wants to be told they’re overreacting or imagining pain.

This bias against women is not only “sexist” male doctors, but exists on a global scale, coming from both male and female healthcare providers. It can play a role in many situations from emergency care to childbirth, to chronic pain management. As doctors learn more about gender differences when it comes to pain, hopefully the relief many women seek will be offered. There's certainly much room for improvement. Attitudes must be adjusted, or else women will continue to be forced into taking more aggressive approaches in order to receive the correct treatment for their pain. Women and men are vastly unique, but when push comes to shove, relief should be blind to gender.