# How come TV commercials for medications now refer to the doctor as "she". **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 10, 2018, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-tv-commercials-for-medications-now-refer-to-the-doctor-as-she/812182 "2018-04-10T20:28:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![zweisamkeit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zweisamkeit/32/4360_2.png) [@zweisamkeit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zweisamkeit)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2018, 12:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-tv-commercials-for-medications-now-refer-to-the-doctor-as-she/812182/41 "2018-04-15T12:34:53Z")
> [@DesertDog](#): > > I remember only a generation back the following riddle: > A man and his son are riding in a car and get into an accident. The man is killed instantly, but the son is alive, though gravely injured. He is rushed to the hospital and into surgery. The ER surgeon comes in, takes one look and declares, “I cannot operate; this is my son.” > What is wrong with this story? > One would hope the answer is now obvious, but back then, an awful lot of people were incapable of seeing the surgeon as the boy’s mother. That riddle still trips people up. Perhaps not as many, which is good, but still. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2018, 12:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-tv-commercials-for-medications-now-refer-to-the-doctor-as-she/812182/42 "2018-04-15T12:50:36Z")
Is there actually something wrong in that story, or is the question supposed to be “How is that possible?” I’m just curious whether this is a riddle that is phrased that way because it has a real answer (other than “nothing”) rather than fishing for the assumptive one (that only men are ER doctors.) ---
**Author:** ![doreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/858c86/32.png) [@doreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doreen)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2018, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-tv-commercials-for-medications-now-refer-to-the-doctor-as-she/812182/43 "2018-04-15T13:03:12Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > Is there actually something wrong in that story, or is the question supposed to be “How is that possible?” I’m just curious whether this is a riddle that is phrased that way because it has a real answer (other than “nothing”) rather than fishing for the assumptive one (that only men are ER doctors.) It’s supposed to something more open-ended , like " How is that possible?" " and the assumption came out when people came up with convoluted answers, like the surgeon was the biological father and the man who died was an adoptive or step-father. ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2018, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-tv-commercials-for-medications-now-refer-to-the-doctor-as-she/812182/44 "2018-04-15T13:05:18Z")
It may be less foreboding, and be more friendly, much like personal assistants (Alexa, Siri, Hey Google)are usually either female by default or female only. ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2018, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-tv-commercials-for-medications-now-refer-to-the-doctor-as-she/812182/45 "2018-04-15T15:47:18Z")
even now very few surgeons are female. As far as Siri, Alexa, etc. that might be related to the traditional practice of having women doing dispatching for cops, fire, etc. I read a while back they picked women for those jobs because they thought their voices were easy to understand. ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2018, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-tv-commercials-for-medications-now-refer-to-the-doctor-as-she/812182/46 "2018-04-15T17:15:51Z")
Quite a few surgeons are female. And most of the OB/GYNs. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2018, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-tv-commercials-for-medications-now-refer-to-the-doctor-as-she/812182/47 "2018-04-15T19:48:33Z")
Here’s a list of the percentage of men and women who are residents in various medical specialties in the U.S., as of 2013: > **[How medical specialties vary by gender](https://www.ama-assn.org/medical-students/specialty-profiles/how-medical-specialties-vary-gender)** > > Recent data show gender may affect what and where future physicians practice. A report by the Association of American Medical Colleges identified the top specialties among 86,439 residents in the class of 2013-2014. Since this is a survey among residents (that is, among doctors who have finished medical school and who are learning their specialty), it predicts what the percentage of doctors in those specialties will be in two or three decades: Obstetrics/gynecology: 85% women Pediatrics: 75% women Family medicine: 58% women Psychiatry: 57% women Internal medicine: 54% men Surgery: 59% men Emergency medicine: 62% men Anesthesiology: 63% men Radiology: 73% men ---
**Author:** ![romadea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b4bc9f/32.png) [@romadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/romadea)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2018, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-tv-commercials-for-medications-now-refer-to-the-doctor-as-she/812182/48 "2018-04-15T21:34:18Z")
4th year med student here - I’ll have my M.D. in a few months and I’ve been working in hospitals for years. Among my colleagues/coworkers, people automatically refer to doctors whose genders they don’t know as “he”. If anyone - doctor, nurse, tech, etc., - is made aware of a new “Dr. Soandso”, and we don’t know them, I’ve noticed that the pronoun assigned is “he/him” until proven otherwise. When I try to tell stories about my work to my non-medical friends, they often get confused as soon as I start speaking in pronouns; when I say “she” they assume I’ve started talking about the patient or the nurse instead of the doctor. As a woman, I’m mistaken for a nurse on a daily basis, in spite of the fact that I work with as many female residents as male. I’ve had a few female attendings, but they tend to be mainly male. In OB-GYN, the distinction is really striking - I never had a female attending, but all but one of the residents in my OB-GYN rotation were female. It was about 10 females led by 2 males. I like that commercials refer to doctors as “she”, because it serves to rebalance the discrepancy I’ve observed - doctors my age and a bit older tend to be almost 50/50 male/female, whereas people, whether in the healthcare profession or not, tend to assume a doctor is is male until proven otherwise. ---
**Author:** ![Steven\_Estes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/94ad74/32.png) [@Steven\_Estes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steven_Estes)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2018, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-tv-commercials-for-medications-now-refer-to-the-doctor-as-she/812182/49 "2018-04-20T17:43:18Z")
snfaulkner snfaee " you have 84 posts and 66 of them are new threads." Steven Estes Reply: Yes. This category is not “Great Debates”, but “General Questions” My posts are for getting information. Usually no conversation or debate is required. ---
**Author:** ![gren](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ce7236/32.png) [@gren](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gren)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2018, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-tv-commercials-for-medications-now-refer-to-the-doctor-as-she/812182/50 "2018-04-20T18:15:05Z")
Answer this question quickly… A boy and his father are in a car crash, the father dies, when the boy gets to the hospital the surgeon says _ **“I can’t operate on him, we’re related”** _ Who is the surgeon? Think quickly and see your bias in action… ---
**Author:** ![gnoitall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2018, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-tv-commercials-for-medications-now-refer-to-the-doctor-as-she/812182/51 "2018-04-20T19:10:33Z")
> [@gren](#): > > Answer this question quickly… > > A boy and his father are in a car crash, the father dies, when the boy gets to the hospital the surgeon says _ **“I can’t operate on him, we’re related”** _ > > Who is the surgeon? Think quickly and see your bias in action… Mom? Adult sister? Grandma? Any random relative of either or any gender? I suspect you were fishing for “Mom”. Not a hard thing to guess, given the original context of the thread. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-tv-commercials-for-medications-now-refer-to-the-doctor-as-she/812182.md?page=2)