Elusive Equity, Empathy, and Empowerment

Book excerpt: Dr. Pandora B. Angel was a practicing physician for thirty years. She spent twenty-three of those years as an emergency physician at a university medical center and an affiliated hospital. In Elusive Equity, Empathy, and Empowerment, she shares the challenges she faced as a female emergency physician in what is still perceived as a male profession. Addressing the gender bias and inequality she experienced while striving for and achieving a career in medicine, this memoir addresses workforce power and control, double standards, gender bias, discrimination, the boys’ club, harassment, contrived narratives for predetermined goals, retaliation, disregard for objective data, and misconceptions. Through thoughtful vignettes, lessons, and appendices, this memoir explores the persistent culture of inequity in the workplace from Angel’s perspective as a female physician in a male-dominated field. Teaching tools and lessons are provided at the end of each chapter to stimulate wider discussions of inequality, harassment, bias, and discrimination that still occur.