A Buzzfeed News article published earlier this month reported that many women of color who work in science, feel unsafe, according to a new study. As a black woman, who also works in science, this caught my attention. Upon closer reading, the article was specifically referencing an article published in the Journal of Geophysical Research, which focused on women in the field of astronomy and planetary science. The study, which was done over 2011 and 2015, found that women of color were frequently subjected to inappropriate remarks, harassment, and even assault.

“40% of women of color reported feeling unsafe in the workplace as a result of their gender or sex, and 28% of women of color reported feeling unsafe as a result of their race. Finally, 18% of women of color, and 12% of white women, skipped professional events because they did not feel safe attending, identifying a significant loss of career opportunities due to a hostile climate.”¹

This made me examine my personal experience working in a scientific field. I am a resident physician specializing in Internal Medicine, and in my specific program, consisting of 90 physicians, I am one of two black women, and one of 8 black residents. Other minority races in my program include Indian, Asian, and Hispanic. The largest racial group in my program is White, and the gender is overwhelmingly male. Many people will not find this surprising in medicine, and I would wager that when people close their eyes and imagine a physician, that physician is a white male. Despite this, I think medicine has come a long way, especially when compared to other scientific fields, and medicine continues to strive to be inclusive. I should mention that among my colleagues, I have never faced harassment or felt unsafe in anyway, and I think it is because when stripped to its core, what matter as a physician is your knowledge base and your ability to treat patients. Race, gender, nepotism, and other “advantages” will not help you if you are faced with someone on the brink of death and don't have the skill to take care of them. I know that because of my work ethic, knowledge base, and ability to work empathetically with patients, I am respected among my colleagues. Unfortunately I have to say that most of my negative experiences being a woman of color in medicine has come from the patient side of the physician-patient relationship. Patients often think I am a nurse, despite wearing a white coat with my name clearly written on it, preceded by “Dr.” and followed by “MD”. Additionally, I have had a few experiences with white and Hispanic patients who are surprised when a black doctor enters the room. Although their discomfort is plain on their face, I have never had a patient refuse care from me. I wanted to see if my views and experiences were similar among others in my field and so I approached some of my colleagues to get their thoughts on the aforementioned article.

Among my colleagues who are minorities, few had any family members in the field of medicine, but entered the field in order to help people. So, without people to encourage you into the field, what led us here? I thought it best said by Dr. A Paliwal, “working with people, using the scientific method, and making an impact on people's lives”. Dr. A Paliwal and I work closely together and have often shared stories of negative experiences we’ve had while at work. Dr. A Paliwal, although a minority, doesn’t feel under-represented in the field. He states, “… I am Indian. Indians represent 5-10% of the physician workforce, and even more so in Internal Medicine, which is a gross over-representation for a minority group. I have never considered if this made any impact on how my peers saw me, but my patients often pass somewhat racist remarks without consideration”. Dr. M. Dahip, another one of my colleagues, is male and Black, but has an uncle who is a physician. His uncle acted as his mentor and inspired him to follow the same path. Dr. M. Dahip “… my race plays a large role in my peers’ perception of me. No matter how educated you are in America or how far you have come the view from those on the outside is that you are inferior to your Caucasian counterparts. I find that being a minority requires one to be qualified if not overqualified to obtain a similar position. My peers view me as a worthy counterpart due to my work ethic.”

 It would be naive to assume that only my minority colleagues face situations where they feel their race or gender exclude them from certain situations. My colleague Dr. N. Kellis is a white male, the first in his family in the field of medicine, and he has felt excluded in treating female patients when it comes to issues of women’s health (e.g. pelvic exams), additionally, he has experienced lack of trust from minority patient who feel, that because he is white, he may not be treating them the same way he would treat white patients. Regarding his female colleagues, he states that “people definitely still have gender prejudices about so-called traditional male careers and will voice them to me. If it’s a woman who walks in to a male patient’s room, they think she is the nurse and they give her tasks they want done”. My female colleague, Dr. S. Akobo, is black, and states that she is “…presumed incompetent just because of my race. People are surprised by the quality of my work because they don’t expect that I should have any substance”. When I asked Dr. Z. Cappe, my white female colleague, if she felt her race played any role at work, her response surprised me, but only for a moment, because it made so much sense. She stated that she has often had to see “…white patients [who] come to see me because they won't want to see the Hispanic providers in our clinic”.

All the male colleagues I spoke with told me they have never felt unsafe at work. One did mention that concern for safety only occurred in the capacity of a mentally ill patient who was acutely in crisis. My female colleagues frequently express feeling unsafe if alone with an aggressive male patient, but more often than not, caveat this by saying that help is not too far away in the form of hospital security, nurses and other health professionals, and colleagues. Fear for safety at the workplace is not unique to women of color. Dr. Z. Cappe experiences fear for her safety in the form of angry patients, but states that she has never felt threatened by colleagues or superiors. It became clear to me that the biggest concern for safety in the medical field tends to come from the patient side, and my Colleague, Dr. B. Taku, a black pharmacist, experiences threats and violence more than his physician counterparts. He describes feeling “…unsafe when drug seekers come into the pharmacy for syringes or when I refuse to fill certain prescriptions (opioids or narcotics) for patients who are known to be drug seekers. They make threats and some even linger in the parking lot waiting for me”. Dr. B. Taku mentions that the female pharmacists also feel unsafe, and “…probably more so. I am larger, I am black. I can be intimidating and patients tend to calm down when I ask them to. They don’t listen very well when the female pharmacists ask the same of them”.

Regarding inclusion in work activity, I found Dr. S. Akobo’s response quite poignant as once in a while, I have also felt the same way. She stated “…My personality would not allow me bow down from an opportunity to participate in a work activity that would enhance my growth. However, I have had a few instances where I have become exhausted because of wearing a “mask” in my attempt to blend in”.

Medicine, like many fields in science, is male dominated, and this will not change overnight. Dr. Taku attributes the low numbers to “…lack of opportunities and encouragement early on”. Dr. Cappe believes it due to “…not receiving the same amount of support because of other people's stereotypes of people of a certain race”. I think that we must continue to encourage young girls’ interest in science so that they become women scientists. This is a problem of limited exposure, lack of mentors for young girls of color, lack of visible role models, and as previously mentioned, lack of encouragement. By growing our numbers, I do think the number of cases of harassment, inappropriate remarks, and assault will decline.

1 Clancy, K. B. H., K. M. N. Lee, E. M. Rodgers, and C. Richey (2017), Double jeopardy in astronomy and planetary science: Women of color face greater risks of gendered and racial harassment, J. Geophys. Res. Planets , 122, doi:10.1002/2017JE005256.