Girl Mayor
Matthew (age 3): “It has to be the mayor.” Me: “The mayor?” Sam (age 5): “Yeah, you know, the guy in charge of everyone in the city.” Me: “You know, women can be mayors too.” Sam: “Yeah, but they’re usually guys.” I keep having some iteration of this conversation with my young sons – women … Continue reading
To Ban Bossy Or Not?
Better that 500 bossy girls go free, than that one leader girl be discouraged. Or something like that. Sheryl Sandberg, the COO of Facebook who urged us to Lean In, is now teaming up with others urging us not to call girls “bossy” in her “Ban Bossy” Campaign. To a certain extent, the sentiment makes … Continue reading
“Are you getting your period?”
“I get annoyed with [my husband] when I overreact to something and he retorts: ‘are you getting your period?’” my friend says. Just imagine what it would be like if we treated men the same way. “You’re only mad because you have blood dripping from your penis. Not because of what I did.” “You always … Continue reading
Evidence-Free Pregnancy Advice
I know why the hoopla around Emily Oster‘s new book, Expecting Better, bothers me, it’s because she hasn’t let you in on obstetrics’ big bad secret… and here it is…. from a pulmonologist. What Ms. Oster points out, and where she is absolutely correct, is that the data to support most pregnancy advice, indeed, most … Continue reading
The Women’s Table
Oh, no. I’m at the loser table, I thought walking into the large room for our summer intern lunch. I sat at my assigned table with the other female bioengineering summer interns and the one female manager, while looking around enviously as the male interns I worked with sat elsewhere with the men. Every woman who works in a male dominated field wants to be sitting at the table with the highest level leadership, and we know, just as everybody … Continue reading
Anxiety
Anxiety ranks among my least favorite diagnoses. In medicine, we have a long history of blaming a variety of diseases on anxiety. Even in the recent past we attributed gastric ulcers to stress until it was proven that a bacteria that lives in the gut is responsible. Indeed, who would have thought: a bacteria living … Continue reading
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