Women in Medicine
Grey's Anatomy: It follows the course of Meredith Grey from her first year of residence all the way to present-day where she is the Chief of General Surgery at Grey-Sloan Memorial Hospital. The writer of the show, Shonda Rhimes is an African American woman herself and uses the show and many of her other ones to show everyday injustices in the field of medicine and she also has kept a very diverse cast throughout all 16 (going on 17) seasons. 
Diversity In Medicine
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In the medical field, the average percentage of women in the workplace is higher than that of corporate America. Women also make up 80% of nurses which is one of the reasons that the percentage of female healthcare workers is so high. Also, the job diversity in the medical field attracts a lot of the STEM majors out of college that is 50% female.
Women in Higher Places: The Healthcare System has the second-highest number of women getting promoted per 100 men getting promoted which is 102. This means that women are more likely to get promoted than men. Although, the numbers are very close so it is likely that since everyone has similar credentials and experience since it is required for that field that promotions are simply determined by who performed the best, rather than the gender biases that tend to exist in other areas.
This image breaks down into greater detail women and men in senior leadership positions and then by race (just black and white no other minorities). This diagram shows that there is still a gap between men and women at the highest level with women only holding around 30% of those positions and black women holding an incredibly low percent of senior leadership positions. One thing that i think is critical to note is the percentage for both white women stays fairly consistent throughout all the different positions where as the percentage of white men in high places grows the higher up you go. This just shows the subtle racism in the field. I think although the early diagram said that women are getting promoted more than men, once you get into the higher positions men are getting promoted more often especially white men.
Treatment of Patients
It is well known that black women and women of color die at disproportionately higher rates than white women and much of that is because many doctors and hospitals have unconscious (and sometime conscious) racial biases which leads to high maternal mortality rates.
Treatment of Women in the Workplace
Like any other environment, women face the issue of sexual harassment at a higher rate than men do, but this does not mean that men are not affected too. This starts as early as medical school and probably even undergraduate. It can be as simple as undermining their intelligence because of their gender or making crude sexual jokes and innuendos. This leads to a higher rate of physician burnout among women and indirect sexual harassment, which is witnessing the sexual harassment of someone else, lead to higher rates of burnout than direct sexual harassment. It can also lead to suicidal thoughts and tendencies.
Also sexual harassment has not declined in over 30 years which is shocking due to things like the #MeToo movement and just overall a better understanding of what sexual harassment and its effects are as a society.
With the competitiveness of medicine many people in power use this to get people who are trying to make their way to the top to do them sexual favors and then uses their position of power to make sure that person won't speak out against them in fear of retaliation.
In Season 10 Episode 14 "You've Got to Hide Your Love Away" there is a new hospital policy that all relationships in the hospital must be kept strictly professional which causes a lot of turmoil within the hospital due to the many different relationships going on in the show. It then comes out that this policy was put in place because a resident, Leah, put in a sexual harassment complaint against Arizona, who is an attending because she felt like Arizona used her position of power to sleep with Leah. She also does it for her fellow resident, Stephanie, who also had a relationship with a higher up and felt like she was mistreated. The reaction to the new policy, as I said before, was taken badly, and another resident, Jo, even yelled at Leah and blamed her relationship "ending" on Leah. This shows the internalized misogyny by many different women but also the struggles that victims face when they come forward with their stories which inturn will discourage people to come forward with their stories of sexual assult/harassment.
Black women over the age of 30 are 3 to 4 times more likely to die in childbirth than their white counterparts.
Factors that Cause Higher Maternal Mortality Rate Among WOC: - lack of access to appropriate and high quality care - delayed and missed diagnosis - lack of knowledge among patients and providers around the warning signs
This problem can be fixed by implementing standardized protocols in quality improvement initiatives, mainly in the institutions that serve disproportionately affected communities and identifying and fixing implicit biases between providers and patients.
The CDC is also putting forward $45 Million dollars to help eradicate this problem across 25 different states.
Over 60% of the deaths caused by these factors could've been prevented.
With the pandemic completely changing the world around us in 2020 its has disproportionately affected people of color. Not only is their concern and fear higher among black americans but the rate at which people are dying of Covid-19 or having serious medical issues is disproportionately high in communites with higher black populations.
Black and Latino people had significantly higher chances of having a mental health issue during quarantine and this is yet another way in which they are disproportionately affected.
Websites used: https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/healthcare-systems-and-services/our-insights/women-in-the-healthcare-industry# https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6928669/#:~:text=Many%20studies%20have%20identified%20the,field%20during%20training%20and%20beyond.https://www.aamc.org/news-insights/sexual-harassment-medicine https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2019/p0905-racial-ethnic-disparities-pregnancy-deaths.html https://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/2020/sep/beyond-case-count-disparities-covid-19-united-states?gclid=Cj0KCQiAhs79BRD0ARIsAC6XpaVBgHNwXku7wu9m_aSQGDowt2cA2kyQXa7g7mSuigiNKYMUv7KoWd8aAv2TEALw_wcB https://www.aamc.org/news-insights/closing-gender-pay-gap-medicine
Pay Gap in Medicine
The main argument that is used to debunk the Gender pay gap exists is that women pick jobs that pay less than men but "More women are choosing to become pediatricians than are choosing to become neurosurgeons, that’s true. But the gap persists within specialty, too.” - Sareh Parangi, MD
Harvard Medical School. The pay gap exists because for most of history men were believed to be overwhelmingly more intelligent and better qualified for jobs in higher places but now that that has passed there needs to be a serious change in all fields not just medicine.
Other Issues that Greys Anatomy has brought light to
Rape Victims and The struggles they face:
Police Brutality: A little boy is shot by the police and brought to the hospital after trying to climb through the window to his house because he forgot his keys to his house. The doctors at Grey- Sloan are unable to save him and one of the black male doctors confronts the police officer who shot him for his racist bias that cost the life of the kid.
This is especially true in male dominated fields like neurosurgery where female surgeons are extremely rare.
Some schools and institutes have implemented the "stop the clock" policy so when parents take time off for maternal or paternal leave they are not penalized which mainly affected women.
The pay gap is narrowing fairly rapidly in medicine. Especially in radiology. In 2013, female radiologists made 20% less than their male counterparts and now in 2020 they are even when it comes to pay.
How this personally affects me
My current major is Biochemistry and Molecular biology and my ultimate goal is to go to Medical School and become a Pediatric Surgeon, so all of these different things matter to me especially if I am going to dedicate my next 10+ years to medicine. It is really reassuring to me that the medical field seems to overall handle things like sexual harassment and the pay gap better than most other professions.