Privilege is not about blame or guilt but rather a recognition that each of us can be advantaged over someone else because of factors outside our personal control. Men and women orthopaedic surgeons should be paid the same for equal work. Some specific actions that each of us can implement are:įor those of us who determine or influence physician compensation, pay your team members equitably based on the criteria you set. The concept is not to take away something from whites or men but to eliminate the negatives for nonwhites and women. Įach of us can make a difference in addressing privilege. And privilege supports healthcare disparities, with the Institute of Medicine stating that disparities could not be explained based on clinical criteria or patient preferences but rather explained at the level of systems of health care and discrimination. Privilege favors leadership advancement in medicine for men over women. Why does privilege matter in orthopaedics? Privilege supports inequity in compensation with women orthopaedic faculty earning USD 40,953 less than men after adjusting for clinical and research productivity. And that, that is a privilege that I have-no matter how poor my family was when I was born”. You know, I will never know the trauma of feeling like I’m not born in the right body. A recent quote from Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez highlighted this well: “I am a cisgendered woman. This is another important aspect of the concept of privilege. Yet pretty much everyone can find some personal privilege that they can acknowledge. Women orthopaedic colleagues of color have both the disadvantage of gender and race or ethnicity. Orthopaedic colleagues of color who are men would have advantages arising from the privilege of being a man and disadvantages related to race. I can speak out against a situation with emotion and know that my emotions will not be perceived to be related to my gender. I thought about my own knapsack as a white orthopaedic surgeon (ignoring my gender for the moment) and found some items to share: I found this metaphor helpful as I contemplated the concept of privilege. White privilege is like an invisible weightless knapsack of special provisions, maps, passports, codebooks, visas, clothes, tools, and blank checks”. McIntosh explored the concept of privilege and described how she saw it “as an invisible package of unearned assets that I can count on cashing in each day, but about which I was ‘meant’ to remain oblivious. Rather, privilege is “a special right, advantage, or immunity granted or available only to a particular person or group”. But having privilege does not mean one is protected from adversity. I believe most of us don’t think of ourselves as privileged since we all experience challenges. Racism and sexism are concepts most of us understand. Let’s adopt a spirit of curiosity and seek to gain some understanding of this powerful, hidden force of privilege that impacts every one of us as surgeons and each of our patients.
Peggy McIntosh writes: “I think whites are carefully taught not to recognize white privilege”.
As American feminist, activist, and scholar Dr. I may believe that no one gave me anything in life, but the reality is far different. I worked hard to get to where I am today. I also feel defensive when I hear “white privilege.” It is not my fault that I was born white.
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