I posted a discussion called "What would you do?"
By tsgirl01
@tsgirl01 (900)
United States
May 2, 2007 8:16pm CST
Hi there, I posted a discussion 2 months ago. Thanks for all the responses. Almost all of my responses referred to my doctor as "he". My doctor was a woman. I wonder if it is society that makes us assume that a doctor is a man. I am guilty of the same kind of thinking. Lot's of us just automatically think of doctors as men. Why do we do this?
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7 responses
@howard96h (11640)
• New York, New York
5 May 07
Very true, people associate a doctor being a male and a nurse being a female. I guess with time people will break this stereotype. Same thing with flight attendants and firefighters. Good post there kiddo. Hey your getting up there in the numbers.
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@tsgirl01 (900)
• United States
5 May 07
Thanks for your compliment and response howard96h. Yes, you are right, there are certain associations in our society. Little by little we women will break the cycle, become more apparent, and in time we will be recognized...LOL!!! It is so funny how we just associate/assume, it is such a natural thing for us humans. But it is fine...we are only following the footsteps of our society. Take care now...
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@sudiptacallingu (10879)
• India
4 May 07
in India, the word "Babu" is the equivalent of the word "Sir". we are so accustomed to addressing a doctor as doctor-babu that we practically fumble with words when we are faced with a lady doctor. many a times i have heard people addressing a lady doctor as "doctor-babu" and the poor hapless lady just had to digest it! centuries of brain-washing and depriving women of education and enlightenment has forced us to naturally accept men in all positions of significance and prevalance. one can automatically imagine nurses as women just as doctors are naturally imagined as men. similarly the boss is always "male" just as the secretary is always "female" and so on... it will take long for us to change baby!
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@tsgirl01 (900)
• United States
5 May 07
That is quite interesting sudiptacallingu. Is there a word in India that means Madam or Miss? In NY where I live, we have lots of male and female Indian doctors. I am going to ask one about the doctor babu and see what other input I can get. Thanks for the information, I learn something new everyday. That is one of the best things I like about myLot. Thanks for responding, take care...
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@Grandmaof2 (7579)
• Canada
3 May 07
Isn't it funny but I do the same thing and yet up until Feb.2007 I always had a woman doctor. I had her for years but she has now retired. I am way happier with a woman doctor, we just don't have any here so maybe that is why I always say He. I think for years it was always a mans profession and I guess we were raised that way. While growing up I never knew of a woman doctor at least not where we were living.
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@tsgirl01 (900)
• United States
3 May 07
Hi Grandmaof2, Thanks for responding. How are you? Well, I understand what you are saying. We always had male doctors while growing up. The dentist was male also. I guess the same could be said for male nurses. We usually consider nurses to be female. I met the nicest male nurse recently. He was wonderful. I guess this is progress. Take care and thanks for responding...
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@ElicBxn (63394)
• United States
3 May 07
Even in this day & age, over 50% of all doctors are still male. So, you have a somewhat better chance of getting it right with "he" rather than "she." I try to respond with "he/she" when I do respond to an unspecified gender, but I can't say I do it all the time. The fact is, that we don't have a "gender neutral" 3 person singular - "it" being the closest &, trust me, you'd like your doctor refered to as "it" even less!
There used to be a certain amount of recogniction that the "male" reference could be used as a "neutral" as in "mankind." And by that instance, the "he" then becomes the gender neutral reference.
Its kind of like assuming all cats are female. I posed some pix of one of my cats & even called him "he" & "him" in the posting & the person came back & called him "she."
In the collective singular of cats, they seem to be all "females" and in the collective singular of humans they, at least used to be, all male.
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@tsgirl01 (900)
• United States
5 May 07
Hi ElicBxn, I like your sense of humor, I sure would not want to be going to a Dr. It! And the majority of docs are still male. But the world is changing slowly and I guess so will we as the statistics change...slowly... I can relate to people using she for cats. Are you familiar with the saying "she is a cat's mother"? As children we were told it was impolite to point and say "she", we were told to use the person's name, not she...go figure. But I do understand it because I was bought up with the saying. And I have to smile and say, Adam started it all...the first man. Take care and thanks for responding and giving such thought provoking input.
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@pyewacket (43903)
• United States
4 May 07
Well certain professions have been solely been either male or female type jobs for so long we just naturally assume that when one says doctor it's a man, just as most people will assume that a nurse is always a woman..now we also have women firefighters, women postal carriers--so it's no longer postmen...etc etc
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@tsgirl01 (900)
• United States
5 May 07
I get you pyewacket, it is becoming a mixed professional world where as before it was totally male dominated. And I see that the police department is saying police officers as opposed to the old police man! Thanks for responding and take care...
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@PsychoDude (2013)
• Netherlands
3 May 07
It is pretty much tradition I'd say. Myself I'm a med student and up front I got to hear there were a lot of women doing that as well, but when I actually got there it was like "wow!", the percentage of girls was about 70% and each year that still keeps on growing.
In the near future, here for certain but think other countries won't be that much different, it'll become weird for a doctor to be a guy.
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@tsgirl01 (900)
• United States
3 May 07
I think that you are right PsychoDude, traditionally doctors were men. I was just so surprised when I realized that so many people said he. I see that the community of doctors is quickly becoming very woman oriented these days. Thanks for responding, and good luck in your medical studies. Take care and keep that grade point average up!!!
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@crickethear (1417)
• United States
19 May 07
LOL, you know I think it is a society thing. I notice that I do that to. I refer to doctors as he, even if I don't know if it is a he or she. I actually even do that when I am referring to animal that is cute. I will say, Oh, isn't he cute??? Or if there is a spider, I will say, will you take him out of here and put him outside? I don't know, if it is a male, I just always use he. Interesting, isn't it? I wonder why.
@tsgirl01 (900)
• United States
20 May 07
Very interesting crickethear, how are you doing? Thanks for responding. I just have to go with the society angle, because that is all that there is as far as I can see. Traditionally, doctors were only men and so on and so on....Perhaps 100 years from now, things will be different. Take care...
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