Objectification by patients, colleagues, and self.
| Sexualisation | |
| By colleagues | ‘I’ve had one [specialty] consultant ask me how many people I’ve slept with to get on to [my specialty]’ (P37) |
| By patients | ‘this one man, you know, he had anal pain so I asked to examine him and he said—he started making all these weird jokes, like, ‘Oh, you have to buy me dinner first!’ You know: ’Give me your phone number.’ (P35) |
| Re-establishing clinical role | ‘my strategy for dealing with those moments in my career has always been to, I guess, briefly acknowledge those considerations and move on with confidence, and then I let my conduct be the driver of the patient developing respect for me.’ (P38) |
| Appearance | |
| Influence on surgical colleagues | ‘I lost a lot of weight at one stage, and I certainly think thinner people get treated better. Thinner, more attractive women certainly get treated better.’ (P41) |
| Being mistaken for another woman | ‘We were both sort of blonde-ish, thinnish women doing [specialty] and so people just lumped us all in together. Maybe we didn’t stand out. Maybe there was just this single persona of blonde-ish, thinnish women who wanted to do [that specialty]! (P11) |
| Clothes | |
| Power dressing for respect | ‘I found that when I go to work, I wear my heels, I wear a nice dress or a skirt, I put on my make-up, my hair’s done well and I look impeccable, and you get more respect.’ (P13) |
| Highlight importance of practical clothes. | ‘High heel shoes are not comfortable for ridiculously long shifts. So, those stereotypes, like girls take forever to put their make up on and all that sort of stuff, it just doesn’t work with the job.’ (P42). |