Sexism In Women's Healthcare

Sexism runs rampant through the institutions of contemporary life. While politics, marriage, education, and athletics are a few of many institutions plagued by sexism, women’s healthcare is perhaps the most egregious of them all because it is a life or death proposition. Women’s healthcare is often put second to men’s healthcare, as physicians neglect to recognize the biological differences between the sexes. This results in women receiving improper treatment for their symptoms or having their needs entirely neglected. Not only do these issues affect women, but also, being that females are child bearers, the lack of attention paid to female health potentially impacts the wellbeing of future children. A number of changes should be implemented
Men and women’s bodies react differently to some of the same external forces, such as a disease and sickness. “With heart disease, many cancers, immunological disorders, and HIV, women present symptoms unlike men’s and respond to different medications and dosages” (Berg 140). Because medical practitioners fail to recognize these differences, many women are improperly diagnosed or receive insufficient treatment. For example, cardiovascular disease has a high mortality rate among both men and women, but the warning signs of a heart attack differ between the two sexes. Men suffer from “chest and arm pain,” whereas women complain about feeling “overwhelmingly tired and dizzy, with occasional shortness of breath” (Berg 139). Educating healthcare providers on the different needs of men and women could potentially save a life. “For too long, women have been treated as ‘little men,’ without an appreciation of the differences in prevalence and symptoms among various conditions and what those differences mean for diagnosis and treatment” (Berg 141). Luckily, since the formation of the Society for Women’s Health Research in 1990, more attention has been paid to biological differences of men and women, allowing for better diagnoses and
Although female inmates’ time spent behind bars is intended to serve as their punishment, having their health neglected often serves as a further punishment, a punishment that is inhumane. “The blood-sugar levels of diabetics aren’t routinely tested, resulting in life-threatening seizures; inmates with newly detected cancers are ignored until they’re deathly ill with stage four metastasized malignancies” (Berg 144,145). It seems as though the prison system justifies the inhumane treatment of criminals, and female criminals in particular, merely because of the crimes they have committed. While some may argue that mistreatment of those who have committed violent crimes is fair, “the majority of imprisoned women are there for nonviolent crimes: drugs, prostitution, check forgery” (Berg 144). These women are serving time for their wrongdoings, and neglecting them proper healthcare is a violation of their ethical