Hidden Horrors & Medical Campuses

Recent news of an intern being subjected to sexually inappropriate behaviour by the HOD of a well-known college in Trivandrum is not surprising to those of us who have been practicing medicine for a while. It's upsetting yes, but unfortunately not surprising. 

The medical hierarchy has always been rigged to favour the ones at the top. Many will claim that this is a good thing and that seniors should be respected. There is no denying that but along with respect there should also be trust. Trust that those in power will not cross the line into abusive and inappropriate behaviour. 

It is not exactly a shock to learn that men in this country are unable to behave properly while in the company of women. What is shocking is just how little deterrent there is in the medical fraternity to stop such blatant abuse of power. The girl in the first paragraph found out she was far from the only one who had such experiences with the professor in question. Most campuses don't have any forum to register such complaints and the danger of an angry senior professor taking out his vendetta is all too real. This is why such incidents often get swept under the rug. 

Sexual harassment is a true iceberg phenomenon. Most cases are hidden beneath the surface.

 

From my admittedly limited experience of seeing such cases, fake accusations promoted by rival professors are much more likely to gain traction than real ones. A wronged intern has few options to turn to until she is about to leave the campus. 

A Lack of Leadership 

 


Those of us with Y chromosomes need to admit that men are not only the cause of the problem but are also unlikely to find actual solutions. The medical world has as much issues with sexism as the rest of society. While there are more women in our field overall, those in charge of our major associations are invariably male. It still feels like we are living in a distant past, not 2021.

The mistake men invariably make is to believe that there simply needs to be more reservations for women to solve this problem. Unfortunately, it doesn't really work that way. 

For more women to take leadership roles in medicine, you need to develop an environment to allow youngsters to feel what it's like to be true leaders. Many college unions however continue to invariably be led by men. You can't exactly expect female Presidents to come up after being given secondary roles ever since college. Most colleges don't even allow equal curfew times for men and women. 

This is important because more confident female leaders are much less likely to allow men with power to get away with such indecent behavior. More female leaders also means more people for young ladies to look up to. This one of the reasons why there was near universal outrage after Shailaja teacher was removed from the Cabinet even though more women were included. One inspirational leader is much more important than a number of token positions.

More Immediate Solutions

 


The problem with any scandal is that everyone except the victim(s) will forget about it in a few months’ time. And this will allow it to happen again. 

In 2021, we cannot allow such antics to happen. Gender equality will take time but more immediate measures must also be taken while the problem is fresh in everyone's minds. There should be a forum for sexual assault victims to register complaints anonymously without fear of being targeted in an academic sense. 

There also needs to be some sort of independent (i.e. without campus influence) agency to investigate such alleged complaints and necessary action should be taken. Most students will not favour immediate police action because unfortunately most campus assault cases are by people they know well. 

There must also be periodic, compulsory sexual harassment awareness classes for all those in a position of authority. Even those who believe they are too pure of heart for such things will likely benefit. 

Conclusion

Women in medicine have more than enough crap to deal with that men can hardly imagine. We don't have to deal with being mistaken for a nurse by patients on a near regular basis. We don't have to deal with not being taken seriously by both colleagues as well as patients because of our gender. The least we could do is try to make sure they don't have to deal with sexual harassment from senior colleagues as well. 

The medical fraternity could really do with a Me-Too movement because we have stayed silent about the perverts among us for far too long.

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