Medical Misogyny
Medical misogyny refers to sexism and/or gender-bias in medicine, medical practices, communication, consent and medical diagnosis. For example, this can cover anything from a delayed diagnosis to the dismissal of pain and other symptoms that women experience due to gender bias and gender stereotypes. Women are frequently labelled by healthcare professionals as being overly dramatic, hysterical or depressed when they complain of pain or are neurodivergent (neurodiversity refers to individual brain function differences, and behaviour that is part of the normal variation in humans).
Consequently, their overall quality of life suffers. Poorer health outcomes for women in comparison to men due to medical misogyny means being denied the fundamental right to health. Women then face unique challenges and a higher propensity than men to fall through the cracks where safe, affordable and high-quality healthcare is concerned.
defined by Dr Gurpreet Kaur
Dr Gurpeet Kaur - she/her
Dr Gurpreet Kaur
Dr. Gurpreet Kaur is an intersectional gender specialist. She received her B.A. (Hons) and M.A. degrees from the National University of Singapore and has a Ph.D. in Gender and Postcolonial Ecofeminism in Literature from the University of Warwick. She is an endometriosis survivor and was on a wheelchair for five years. Her interest in pursuing international law and policy towards justice was cemented during these years as she experienced first-hand through disability that disempowerment can take various forms and shapes. She has just finished pursuing international human rights law at SOAS, University of London, focusing on conceptions of female violence and terrorism.
In bringing all the different strands together, Gurpreet is now working as an advisor focusing on climate change, gender, human rights and security. In her free time, Gurpreet can be found watching Netflix, writing and travelling. She’s part of the team at Patient No More, and defining for us on their behalf - check out their excellent work below.
Patient No More
Patient No More is an advocacy platform that supports disabled and chronically ill women, girls and people AFAB to advocate for themselves in their healthcare journey, whilst pushing for change to address the gender health gap and medical misogyny within the UK.
@patient_no_more on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook
