“The evil affecting the profession is deeper and more global,” denounces the vice-president of the Young Doctors union

Doctor Anna Boctor deplores the persistence of numerous “discriminations against women”, particularly “in access to careers”.

“The evil that affects the profession has always been a much deeper and more global evil”, denounces Saturday April 13 on franceinfo Doctor Anna Boctor, vice-president of the Young Doctors union. A #MeToo movement is emerging in the health sector with accusations of sexual and moral harassment against emergency physician Patrick Pelloux and made by infectious disease specialist Karine Lacombe. Anna Boctor, a pediatrician who practices in the Alpes-Maritimes, deplores the persistence of many “discrimination against women”notably “in access to careers”.

In the columns of Paris Match, Karine Lacombe on Wednesday described the president of the Association of Emergency Doctors of France as “sexual predator” At “sexually dominant behavior”. Since then, many caregivers have spoken out to denounce sexist and sexual violence within the hospital. Anna Boctor recalls that there have always been testimonies or “requests for help from the legal department” of his union. She mentions, for example, “student parties where there is no consent” Or “inappropriate words and gestures” from patients.

“Omerta”

In 2020, she co-signed with “more than 300 doctors” a column in Le Monde, in which she relayed her own experience. “At the time, it made a bit of noise in the industry, but not in the media like today”, she says. She explains that if in recent days we have seen multiple messages on social networks under the hashtag #MeToohopital, it is because the accusations against Patrick Pelloux “concern two well-known personalities”. Anna Boctor regrets that previously things had not “not moved” because they were not “not really raw”. She remembers that during an interview “with representatives of the French Hospital Federation (FHF)“we “simply replied that women had careers like men and did not suffer from discrimination”. “If until now we have not been listened to, it is because of this omerta”she laments.

A “historically male” profession

The omnipresence of this violence within the hospital environment can be explained, according to Anna Boctor, by the fact that the profession is “historically masculine”even if “she becomes more feminine from year to year”. “The powers are in the hands of men”, supports the pediatrician. She assures that there “has a lot of himself” within the profession and that many men “protect each other“.

“Women find it difficult to speak openly, non-anonymously because they fear for their careers.”

Anna Boctor, from the Young Doctors Union

on franceinfo

The pediatrician also mentions a certain “conditioning” which dates from the start of medical studies. “From the age of 18, we are quite docile, we do what we are asked”, she describes. The vice-president of the Young Doctors union believes that “this servility of the profession, this conditioning from the start of studies is a perfect breeding ground for omerta”. Anna Boctor therefore hopes that the media coverage of this #MeToo in the hospital will make it possible to “get things moving on the government side”.