Princess MD

From my early days as a premed, one thing has always been crystal clear and that is people will say whatever they need to say, ie LIE, to get what they want. And I'm not saying that every premed lies their way into medical school, but as time has gone on it sure does seem that not only are people not ashamed of lying their way to "success", there seems to be the air of expectation that such behavior is normal.

Case in point, the recent NYT article by an Anesthesiologist who posits that women doctors are essentially ruining the practice of medicine with their decisions to 1) Work part-time and/or 2) Quit. While I agree that certain specialties in medicine should NOT allow for part-time practice, like surgical subspecialities, I do believe certain other Docs, like Internists, should allow for part-time work options. Now it appears that part-time work for the average Doc is somewhere around 30-40 hours, which seems like a decent amount of time to keep one's skills up.

Not surprisingly, when I posted my response to this article on the largest site for women MD's, premed, med students, I was a woman alone (suprise, suprise). And in the almost 10 years I've been a member of that site, I've regularly disagreed with many of the women on that site for reasons which boil down to one thing IMHO. When I ceased being Miss RHS in 1984, I stopped "wearing a tiara" on my head and became a "real" woman, LOL!!!! But apparently theirs are and will forever be glued to their heads.

I totally "get" that because of my career success as a Scientist and my husband's as a company CEO/Engineer, our kids our going to grow up with a different sense of what they can and can't achieve in the world than if we were in a different socioeconomic level. But despite the fact that we have a Black president (who claims his blackness, there were a few who didn't) for the "first" time in the history of the US, I know that because our kids are Black they'll, NEVER be able to take anything we can provide them for granted. Unfortunately, many women particularly those who grew up with 1 or 2 parents as Docs, didn't get that memo.

One of the things I've learned on that site (which is ironic because a woman of color owns it) and others like it, is that it's okay to talk about "Black privilege" AKA affirmative action, but that if you want to see a collective group of panties bunch up in the crevices of a LOT of butts, try talking about white, female privilege. IMHO, neither men or women of color could "get away" with what these women are doing to medicine in great numbers, without serious professional consequences. And when you have a collective group of women who feel they can sashay in and out of medicine for frivolous reasons, you see this privilege in all it's shinning glory. Now for clarity, I'm NOT talking about women who have special needs children, sick family members to take care of, or anything related to things OUT of our control, and the fact that I even had to clarify that on that site, is indicative of just how pathetic some people can be when they feel their toes being stepped on. I'm talking about the woman who wants 3 or more kids IN DIAPERS, and who expects to complete a residency in OB/GYN with NO issues or special accommodations. So many times I want to say "do you people believe/practice birth control"?, 'cause when Shenanae with her 3 kids, who serves the fries at the local Mickey D' starts to complain about her job, that's what these people would suggest to HER. Now why IS that?

Many times, I've been told that I'm anti-women which is probably the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard considering I have 2 X chromosomes too. I'm VERY much pro woman, but anti- selfish, self-certered, the world revolves around me witch, because I'm old enough to know what many of those privileged folks don't know and that is in work place settings, we're ALL judged by the actions of people who look JUST LIKE US!!!! It's clear to me, that as long as these "Princess MD's" are getting what THEY want, they couldn't care less of a damn about the rest of us, they've got theirs. That's why when I met with one of the deans of a local med school for a chit chat a couple years ago, I agreed with him 100% that med schools should admit FEWER women. I mean really, do you think ANY of these women indicated in their interview their desire to quit medicine after they had 2 kids and couldn't "handle it"?? And please spare me the they didn't know how mother hood would affect them speech, that's weak, crass, and complete BS!!!! So you're smart enough to get into med school, but can't anticipate that motherhood can be unpredictable and challenging? Yeah right!

And that's what this is really all about to me, having some honesty and integrity when you're interviewing for med school, residency, and beyond instead of just flat out lying about your "commitment" to medicine. Because while you're off laying on a beach somewhere during your "break" from medicine on your husband's dime, there's a single Mom/Dad attending working their ass off who could really use a break.