This Side of Doctoring: Reflections from Women in Medicine By Eliza Lo Chin
For Women’s History Month this March, we will be reading This Side of Doctoring: Reflections from Women in Medicine by Eliza Lo Chin. In the male-dominated field of medicine, women have unique experiences and challenges. In this book, Eliza Lo Chin compiled the writing of 100 women in medicine, sharing poems, stories, and essays of the female experience in medicine.
Stories range from experiences in medical school where many of the female physicians were discriminated against for their gender to essays about why they decided to pursue medicine. The book is divided into 12 overarching chapters, labeled “Historical Perspective, Early Pioneers, The Formative Years, Life in the Trenches: Internship and Residency, On Doctoring, Mothering and Doctoring, Making Choices, Barriers, Connections, Balancing, Our Families’ Perspectives, and Reflections.” A large part of the book is focused on the experience of female physicians being a mother. With work-life-balance being difficult for all doctors, females share the unique experience of being a mother, which constitutes the same amount of time, if not more, as an additional full-time job.
The stories encased in this book are unique to each of the women’s experiences. From medical students to veteran physicians, a wide range of perspectives is included. Despite this diversity in the writers, there are still central themes and experiences that most of the women experience in the medical field, whether it be the challenges of maintaining courage when faced with gender discrimination, or persevering through the difficulty and fatigue of being a doctor while raising your own children. Reading this book can give you a glimpse of the experiences women face in medicine, helping you obtain a broader perspective of female physicians and greater respect for them.
To read more about these successful women in medicine’s experiences in the field, come visit MVR 1203 and check it out!
