Photo by Marco Sanchez
Jennifer Rubin Grandis is the author of the new book Harsh Medicine: Why Women Can't Get Ahead in Science and Health Care. She is a physician and a distinguished professor at the University of California, San Francisco.
Q: What inspired you to write Harsh Medicine, and how much did your own experiences factor into that decision?
A: When I began my career as a surgical intern, I could not ignore the fact that I was the only woman. Over time, as I witnessed more women enter medicine, science and even surgery, it’s objectively factual the leaders of my field remain mostly men: despite more women in the field, the leadership remains male. Perhaps naively, I believed that academia was a meritocracy.
Relatively late in my career, I could not escape my male boss’s harassment and chose to resign from a leadership position and not take the money he offered linked to signing an NDA. I needed to understand why this happened to me, and who else it was happening to.
My book, Harsh Medicine, is based on a study that was my response to what felt like a career-ending event. If harassment could happen to me, even at my leadership level, it could happen to anyone.
Q: The author Arlie Russell Hochschild said of the book, “If
you think gender bias in medicine is a matter of history, read Harsh Medicine.”
What do you think of that description, and do you think gender bias in medicine
has changed at all over the decades?
A: I agree that data from many studies has shown gender differences in
compensation and success in lots of professions including medicine and science.
These gaps persist despite reporting the data.
With more women entering the workforce including medicine, gender bias has changed but cultural expectations and tolerance of women in positions of power persists.
Q: You conducted interviews with more than 100 people involved in the medical field--what did you learn that especially surprised you?
A: I was surprised most that the men could easily see sexism (and worse) when it happened to their wives or daughters if they were in the field. They could even accept that sexism was thriving in academic medicine. But almost none of the men I interviewed could see what was happening in their own domains.
Q: What do you see looking ahead when it comes to gender bias in medicine? And do you think gender bias in medicine is comparable to gender bias in other fields?
A: Talented women are still choosing to become physicians and scientists. The prior embrace, and now rejection of, DEI highlights the importance of these issues.
I have no reason to believe that gender bias in other fields that were traditionally male-dominated is any different from medicine. The urgency of tackling these problems in medicine is that women doctors are highly trained and we need them to care for us and our loved ones. A woman scientist may be poised to prevent or treat the diseases we will suffer from.
Wasting talent and harming members of a healing profession is hard to justify.
Q: What are you working on now?
A: I am working on a memoir. The first iteration of the Harsh Medicine book included a lot of my own story which I ultimately removed, to give more space to the men and women that I highlight in the book, so I am using my own stories in my future work.
Q: Anything else we should know?
A: The issues are real, serious, and while there are no quick fixes, I am convinced that we can do better! It starts with talking about issues, sharing our experiences and asking others for their points of view.
I hope that this book provides comfort to those who have suffered or who are struggling and insight for people poised to make our world a better place.
--Interview with Deborah Kalb
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