Tag: 70s

TOO MANY WOMEN DOCTORS? ARE YOU SERIOUS? DON’T YOU WATCH GREY’S ANATOMY?

Too_many_women_docs_2
OK now I’m mad!  I have a pretty high tolerance for media assumptions and misrepresentations unfair to those of us who are female.  I do.  Really.  But I think I’ve hit the wall.  Listen to this, from Business Week this week (here’s a hint – the article is called "Are There Too Many
Women Doctors?" ) The premise – there’s a doctor shortage in the US and:  This looming shortage is forcing into the open a controversy that has
been cautiously debated in hospitals and medical practices for some time: Are
women doctors part of the problem? It’s
not the abilities of female doctors that are in question. It’s that study after
study has found women doctors tend to work 20% to 25% fewer hours than their
male counterparts.

What to discuss first?  That those who work that additional 20-25% probably work too hard?  That resentments build
up in their spouses and children that never go away.  That the "problem" is in reality a grand improvement achieved through the work and suffering of a generation of women who fought their way through medical school, internships and fellowships and now use their knowledge both to take care of people and to still live a life of their own. Shocking!

Continue reading TOO MANY WOMEN DOCTORS? ARE YOU SERIOUS? DON’T YOU WATCH GREY’S ANATOMY?

BACK TO THE FUTURE

Cindy_dunbarton_oaks_1969 Some picture, huh?

Yesterday a friend who is writing a book about the TV news business in the 60’s and 70’s asked me for some photos from the time we worked together.  As I went through old albums and pulled out the few I had, I found this one.  I remember the day it was taken – a sunny spring Sunday in Washington in a public garden.  Newly out of college, newly employed, newly in possession of a Nikon, I’d gone with a friend to take photos of all things lovely.  She took this one of me.  (note to all curly haired people – this look was achieved by sleeping with hair wrapped around orange juice cans!) 

Almost 40 years later, I am surprised that I look at this with pleasure, not sadness.  I expected the familiar "ah I looked so much better then – so much was ahead of me" stuff but found none. 

I’m sure something is still there – I got kind of weepy going through the books and seeing family photos from when the boys were little – so much time gone by.  But that’s nostalgia for the joy that comes from wonderful children and the memories lucky families build.  But this photo – no pangs at all. 

Nope.  I was a lucky girl.  I had more adventures by the time I was 25 than many people get in a lifetime and I’m still having them.  So there she is – the weekend me from the beginning of my grown-up life, young and happy in the sunshine.