Sex Role Stereotypes and the American Physician

Abstract

The potential influence of sex-role stereotypes on women medical patients is examined in this paper. It is argued that medical practice is, in part, a social enterprise, influenced by sex-role stereotypic notions held by both patients and physicians, and particularly by the interaction of women patients' behavior with physicians' expectations. Indirect evidence suggests that physicians tend to attribute symptoms presented by women to psychogenic rather than organic causes, but that women nonetheless receive more medical treatment than men in the form of unnecessary surgery and psychotropic drugs. The latter is viewed as part of a historical trend that the feminist self-help movement is attempting to counteract.