Nearly half of the female physicians who responded to a
recent survey say they have been sexually harassed at work, either verbally or
physically. Of these, 60% said the culprit was a senior colleague.
The survey included 502 male and 582 female physicians in 43
medical specialties and was conducted by a senior physician at Tel Aviv’s
Sourasky Medical Center (Ichilov
Hospital).
Only one-fifth of the male respondents reported sexual
harassment. Around half of them said female patients were the perpetrators.
One female doctor says she was fired after refusing the
overtures of a more senior male doctor. Another says her harasser, also a
senior physicians, told her, “You can pick up your letter of recommendation at
my house this evening,” adding, “If I wouldn’t go to jail for it, I would screw
you here and now.”
The survey was conducted by Prof. Alexander Greenstein, a
senior urologist at Ichilov Hospital, together with the PharmQuest research
company, among physicians subscribing to the doctors’ portal of Mednet, an
Israeli medical portal. The average age of the respondents was 52.4 years old,
with 42% working in hospitals and the rest in the community.
Changing attitudes
“We didn’t think half the female doctors would report that
they had been sexually harassed, and by a senior staff member who works with
them yet,” said Greenstein. “If we’re in a system in which half the female
doctors have been sexually harassed − we’re in big trouble.
That’s a very high
percentage and we have to give some thought to it, for example how to change
the attitude to things that were once not considered to be sexual harassment
and today apparently are, how that affects the professional development of the
victim of harassment who is liable, for example, to give up a specialization if
she was harassed by a senior doctor, and more.”
Among the 47% of female doctors who reported suffering
harassment, the biggest source of harassment after their superiors came from
their own colleagues, with 34% reporting they had been harassed by men in their
own departments and 26% by doctors in other departments. Only 18% said patients
were the harassers.
Among the male doctors who reported sexual harassment, 46%
implicated female patients, followed by female colleagues (29%), female doctors
in other departments
(21%) and patients’ relatives (17%).
Just over a quarter
of the male respondents said they had been harassed by a senior department
colleague, male or female. (The
numbers total more than 100% because more than one answer was possible).
What does sexual harassment include? For the female
respondents: verbal sexual innuendo (60%) patting (30%), being held tightly
(30%), hugging (26%) or an being invitation to a date or event with sexual
intentions (17%) Around 17% reported that a doctor had changed clothes in their
presence.
The male doctors reported verbal innuendo ((45%,
being patted or held tightly (19%) or hugged in an uncomfortable way ((12%.
Some women reported more obvious molestation, such as the
doctor who recalled “a unit director who, while I was examining a girl in the
room for sexual assault victims held me close from behind and whispered
obscenities. Others spoke with frustration about being silenced: “I was
sexually abused by a psychiatrist, and when I told the female department
director she waved me off,” one woman related.
The male doctors, many of whom reported that they had been
harassed by patients, reported comments such as: “How nice for me that you’re
taking care of me. Maybe you’ll also take care of me after work hours?” “Don’t
be afraid to touch, look, nothing will happen to you if you see a naked woman,”
and “Haven’t you ever see a woman without a bra?”
Greenstein admitted he was surprised that so many male
physicians said they were harassed by female patients: “That’s not in the
spotlight, and we have to think, for example, about how that affects the
quality of care they receive from that doctor.”
On Thursday the Israel Medical Association, in cooperation
with the Israel Association of Medical Women, announced the establishment of a
crisis center to aid and support both male and female physicians experiencing
sexual harassment at work.
“At the crisis center every doctor who has fallen victim to
sexual harassment by a patient or the medical staff will be able to receive
immediately guidance as to how to act in the wake of the incident. In time of
need they will receive legal assistance as well as support and accompaniment
from the crisis center until the conclusion of all the procedures necessitated
by the incident, as much as is required and possible and as much as they want,”
said the announcement.
The phone number of the crisis center: 1-800-800-290.
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