This Op-Ed was written by Lee McGrath and originally appeared in the Tri-City Herald.
For thousands of years, so-called female hysteria was used to explain away a slew of symptoms and conditions — including multiple sclerosis, anxiety, or even lacking a menstrual cycle — and also played a role in the forced hospitalization of women. While this might seem like antiquated thinking, a new report found women with severe mental illness are less likely to have their symptoms taken seriously by clinicians and more likely to be misdiagnosed.
Gender bias in all aspects of healthcare is still prevalent, leading to significant inequities and negatively impacting women as patients and as professionals working in the healthcare industry.
Female healthcare workers earn on average of 24 percent less than their male peers – facing a larger gender pay gap than any other economic sector. And although women constitute the majority of the healthcare workforce, they hold only 19 percent of hospital CEO positions and they head only 4 percent of healthcare companies.
When it comes to patient care, gender biases have contributed to a lack of knowledge and research around female health, inadequate symptom management, delayed diagnoses, and even increased rates of death from heart attacks.
The ongoing gender bias in healthcare can impact everything from a woman’s socioeconomic status to their mental and physical well-being. That is why it is crucial for women, whether in the doctor’s office or the workplace, to feel heard and be taken seriously.
Easier said than done, I know. How are we supposed to speak up in a system that has disregarded our voices for so long? I don’t have all the answers, but I have found the following advice useful as both a patient and in my two decades of working in healthcare.
- Trust your own expertise. Whether in the workplace or the doctor’s office, your knowledge, personal experience, and opinions matter, so don’t be afraid to speak up. Insert your voice into that important meeting or a conversation with your physician even if it feels scary. Know that your voice is equally as valuable as the next person’s.
- Get comfortable with difficult conversations. Raising concerns and delivering feedback is rarely easy, but the longer you put off those difficult conversations, the harder they become. If you need to have a difficult conversation at work, don’t try to create or rehearse a script. Instead, try writing down three things you want to accomplish and focus on them.
- Take care of your mental health. Mental well-being is critical in every aspect of our lives. Learn your strengths and your limits. Take time to explore what stresses you out and what calms you down. Build a community of people – family, friends, coworkers – who you trust to support you and help you maintain perspective. And stop comparing yourself to others. It’s never going to make you feel at ease.
- Advocate for yourself. Studies have shown women are not often taken as seriously as men when it comes to healthcare. This is particularly true for mothers. There are several ways you can be a better health advocate for yourself and your children. One good practice is to take notes — keep a journal of your symptoms and bring it with you when you visit your doctor. The more information you can share, the more you can promote your and your family’s health. Also, listen to your body and trust your intuition. If something doesn’t feel right, speak up and don’t ignore it. Finally, ask questions — as many as you want — and if you aren’t satisfied with the answer, let your doctor know. Rarely is there only one option or solution.
We all need to push for the system to improve. Tips like these can help, but to really address gender bias the healthcare industry must acknowledge that we cannot put the burden on women alone to solve the problem. It is incumbent on all of us to play a role in creating a future where women don’t have to navigate a biased healthcare system. This includes focusing on inequities in pay and hiring, creating policies and practices that prioritize women’s mental and physical health, and addressing knowledge gaps that lead to worse outcomes for women. Women are speaking up and speaking out to improve healthcare — we all need to listen.
Lee McGrath is Executive Vice President of Health Care Services for Premera Blue Cross.
