Gender sensitivity a sensitive issue CMAJ 1997;157:640 Re: "Gender sensitivity in medical curricula" (CMAJ 1997;156:1297-1300 [full text / résumé]) by Barbara Zelek and associates See response from: S. Phillips I believe this is a timely and valuable article and particularly appreciate the advice for medical educators that will help us to avoid creating difficulties unwittingly. That one can easily be gender insensitive during a medical communication is exemplified in the last paragraph of the section on guidelines relating to language. The authors suggest changing "a 23-year-old woman who works as a medical secretary" to "a 23-year-old medical secretary." While this change might place equal emphasis on this person's occupation, compared with the previous example of a "40-year-old professional man," it has become totally insensitive to gender. The authors are presuming that all medical secretaries are women. If this was the only mention of the secretary's sex in this medical communication, such a change in text would be inappropriate. P. Gerard Cox, MB Firestone Regional Chest & Allergy Unit St. Joseph's Hospital McMaster University Hamilton, Ont. Send a letter to the editor responding to this letter Envoyez une lettre à la rédaction au sujet de cette lettre | CMAJ September 15, 1997 (vol 157, no 6) / JAMC le 15 septembre 1997 (vol 157, no 6) |