Dr. Meera enters the consultation room and greets the patient. Then comes a pause. The patient asks "When will the doctor arrive?" It's a small moment. Easy to brush off, but it's also the kind of moment that reveals a deeper truth. Here is a woman who has spent years studying, hundreds of hours in clinics, and yet, in that one moment, her competence was simply overlooked.
Here, Dr. Meera is a fictional character created solely to illustrate how gender bias can quietly appear in everyday clinical settings.
Gender bias in medicine rarely announces itself. It slips in through assumptions, the way a white coat is perceived differently depending on who's wearing it, through the unspoken question of ‘who gets to look like a doctor.’
To bring real voices into this conversation, MEDBOUND TIMES reached out to five female doctors across different specialties and career stages. We heard from Dr. Samiksha Das, MBBS, MD Psychiatry; Dr. Anupama V V, MBBS, MD Psychiatry; Dr. Swati Mishra, MBBS, MS, ENT; Dr. Ch Sahithi Prabha, BDS, MDS; Dr. Varsha Kachroo, MBBS, MD Medicine, DrNB Endocrinology.
Their reflections, shaped by everyday clinical experiences, offer an honest look at how gender bias continues to surface in subtle yet significant ways within the medical profession.
Medicine prides itself on merit, the belief that if you've earned the degree, you've earned the respect. Yet beneath this structured system, gender bias persists, subtle, normalized, and easily dismissed precisely because the system appears fair on paper. It doesn't usually show up in policy, instead, it shows up in tone, in trust, and the way people speak, who they trust, and who they choose to believe.
A recent cross-sectional study published in JAMA Network Open analyzed more than 345,000 online patient reviews of over 167,000 physicians across the United States. Researchers found that female physicians had higher odds than male physicians of receiving negative comments about both interpersonal manner and technical competence. The study also found that female physicians were more likely to receive lower star ratings when negative comments were present, suggesting gender-based differences in how patients evaluate medical expertise. 2
Another well-known study by Moss-Racusin et al. (2012), published in PNAS (2012), demonstrated that faculty at research universities rated male applicants significantly more competent and hireable than identically qualified female applicants and offered them higher starting salaries. These patterns can have long-term professional consequences.
Dr. Sameeksha Das, a psychiatrist from NIMHANS with 10 years of experience, says that “ In my previous workplace, there appeared to be a strong gender bias. Male colleagues were often favored, and female doctors were more likely to be labeled as less hardworking or less committed. There was also greater scrutiny of female colleagues based on personal and social factors, such as marital status or outward indicators like wearing sindoor, which influenced how they were perceived. Overall, assessment seemed to extend beyond professional competence to include subjective judgments about being a ‘respectable’ or ‘good’ woman.”
“Are you the nurse?”
One of the most common questions young female doctors encounter isn’t about medicine but about identity. While nursing is a highly respected profession, this assumption reflects a deeper stereotype that doctors are male by default.
A 2022 study published in Annals of Surgery found that female residents were 23.7 times more likely to be misidentified as non-physicians compared to male residents. The study also reported that residents in surgical specialties were 3.7 times more likely to experience misidentification than those in non-surgical fields.
Dr. Anupama VV, a MD final year in geriatric psychiatry from NIMHANS with 7 years of experience says that, ”Most of the time all of us female doctors even in senior roles, get mistaken for nurses or support staff. Our male colleagues never correct these people who do not acknowledge female doctors, which is unfortunate.”
These microaggressions may seem small, but they are persistent and accumulate over time. This can affect confidence, disrupt focus, and subtly influence how young female doctors perceive themselves within the profession.
A 2023 study in the Journal of General Internal Medicine found that female residents often struggle to be perceived as authoritative, highlighting how women's assertiveness is frequently misinterpreted.
Female doctors often navigate a narrow path between perception and expectation, one that their male colleagues may not face as frequently. A study by Rojek et al. found that performance evaluations of female residents were disproportionately populated with words like "compassionate" and "caring" while male residents at identical performance levels were described as "scientific" and "considerate”. The language wasn't neutral, it was quietly sorting people into roles before their careers had even fully begun.
Yes, female doctors often feel they have to prove themselves more. This can lead to over-preparing, being extra cautious in decision making and sometimes communicating more defensively or less assertively, which can affect confidence over time.
Dr. Ch Sahithi Prabha, an assistant professor, Vishnu Dental College
A 2016 study published in JAMA Internal Medicine found that female physicians earned significantly less than their male counterparts. Researchers reported that on average, female doctors earned approximately USD 51,315 less than male doctors before adjustments. Even after accounting for factors such as age, experience, faculty rank, specialty, research productivity, and clinical revenue, a gender pay gap of nearly USD 20,000 (roughly 8% of men’s salaries) remained. The study concluded that a substantial portion of the pay difference could not be explained by measured professional factors alone. 1
Dr. Varsha, a consultant endocrinologist with 8 years of clinical experience from Delhi, says that, ”It’s not always very visible, but I think differences can exist, especially in opportunities or who gets pushed forward for certain roles. Sometimes it’s about who speaks up or negotiates more as well.”
To understand misogyny in medicine, it is important to look at the bigger picture because the problem doesn't start in hospitals or clinics. It starts much earlier, in the way society quietly teaches us who gets to be in charge and who doesn't.
For a long time, leadership and authority have been seen as naturally "male" traits, while women have been expected to be gentle, agreeable, and caring. These deep-rooted expectations don't disappear when a woman puts on a white coat. They follow her into the workplace, influencing how patients see her and how institutions treat her.
The result?
Female doctors often have to prove their competence in ways that many male counterparts may not experience to the same extent.
Over time, the weight of these experiences can take an emotional and mental toll on female doctors. It wears them down emotionally, leaving them constantly on guard and mentally drained.
Dr. Varsha says,” It can be tiring, honestly. Not in a dramatic way every day but small things add up. Some days you brush it off, some days it gets to you. Having supportive colleagues really helps. I don’t think it changes patient care drastically, but it can affect how much mental energy you have left.”
Also, Dr. Sahithi adds,” Experiencing gender bias can be mentally draining, it can lower confidence, increase stress, and sometimes lead to burnout or hesitation in speaking up. Professionally, it may make doctors over-cautious or less assertive.”
The effects of misogyny in medicine don’t just harm female doctors; they can also affect the quality of care patients receive.
Sometimes the mental toll from the bias can be reflected in the patient care also. A doctor’s mental well-being matters because stress, burnout, and constant self-doubt can affect focus, decision-making, and communication in high-pressure medical environments.
When a doctor's credibility is questioned, treatment decisions can be delayed or unnecessary questioning of the correct diagnosis can significantly cost a lot of time that can directly influence outcomes. A healthcare system functions best when medical professionals are trusted and evaluated based on their knowledge, competence, ethics, and communication rather than gender stereotypes. When prejudice interferes with that trust, both doctors and patients ultimately bear the consequences.
Dr. Anupama says,” Yes. Female doctors have to work extra and take up a lot of work whereas male trainees just have to merely exist. So we tend to read extra, work more hours and are in constant urge to prove our mettle sometimes leading to burn out.”
There should also be structured sensitization during MBBS training itself. Female students should be oriented on how to recognize, navigate, and respond to situations involving harassment, undue influence, or boundary violations. At the same time, both male and female students should be sensitized to issues of sexual harassment, professional boundaries, and appropriate conduct in hierarchical settings.
Dr. Sameeksha Das, psychiatrist, NIMHANS
Dr. Sameeksha adds,” There should be a strong emphasis on merit-based evaluation, where appreciation or reprimand is based solely on professional conduct and competence.”
Female doctors are expected to balance clinical authority with emotional warmth. This invisible labor, of constantly adjusting tone and demeanor, adds an extra layer to an already demanding job. Most often, they have to overprepare and overwork to constantly prove their competence.
Every moment spent managing perception is a moment not spent purely on medicine. And unlike clinical skill, this labor is invisible; it is never praised. The burden of adjustment of softening and constantly recalibrating falls disproportionately on women, in a profession that asks everything of everyone and then quietly asks women for a little more.
Respect in medicine should be rooted in knowledge, skill, competence, ethics and compassion, not filtered through gender. At the end of the day, a doctor is a doctor.
Medicine demands competence, judgment, and compassion. Those qualities are not determined by gender. Yet for many women in healthcare, the burden of proving that remains a daily reality. Until respect is granted as readily as responsibility, the conversation around misogyny in medicine remains far from over.
References
1. Jena, Anupam B., Andrew R. Olenski, and Daniel M. Blumenthal. 2016. "Sex Differences in Physician Salary in US Public Medical Schools." JAMA Internal Medicine 176 (9): 1294–1304. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamainternmed.2016.3284
2. Madanay, Farrah, M. Kate Bundorf, and Peter A. Ubel. 2025. "Physician Gender and Patient Perceptions of Interpersonal and Technical Skills in Online Reviews." JAMA Network Open 8 (2): e2460018. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2024.60018.
3. Moss-Racusin, C. A., Dovidio, J. F., Brescoll, V. L., Graham, M. J., & Handelsman, J. (2012). Science faculty's subtle gender biases favor male students. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 109(41), 16474–16479. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1211286109
4. Frank, A.K., Lin, J.J., Warren, S.B. et al. Stereotype Threat and Gender Bias in Internal Medicine Residency: It is Still Hard to be in Charge. J GEN INTERN MED 39, 636–642 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11606-023-08498-5
5. Rojek, A. E., Khanna, R., Yim, J. W. L., Gardner, R., Lisker, S., Hauer, K. E., Lucey, C., & Sarkar, U. (2019). Differences in Narrative Language in Evaluations of Medical Students by Gender and Under-represented Minority Status. Journal of general internal medicine, 34(5), 684–691. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11606-019-04889-9
6. Jain, N., Rome, B. N., Foote, M. B., DeFilippis, E. M., Powe, C. E., & Yialamas, M. A. (2022). Sex-Based Role Misidentification and Burnout of Resident Physicians: An Observational Study. Annals of surgery, 276(2), 404–408. https://doi.org/10.1097/SLA.0000000000004599
