Gender bias in medical diagnosis
Gender bias has a significant negative effect on medical diagnosis and the quality of healthcare people receive. It can lead to substantial delays in diagnosis, as well as misdiagnosis and even death.
Gender bias most severely affects women and other marginalized genders. However, it has a negative impact on everyone, and contributes to health inequity worldwide.
In this article, we explore gender bias in medical diagnosis, looking at what it is, how it manifests, and its impact on health and healthcare.
Gender bias can be conscious, and something someone is aware that they have. Gender bias can also be unconscious, or something a person is not aware of. This is known as implicit bias.
In addition to gender, which refers to how a person feels inside, people can also be treated unfairly because of their gender. Sex is based on biological characteristics, such as a person’s reproductive organs and chromosomes.
Historically, people have used the biological differences between the sexes to perpetuate gender stereotypes. This includes the idea that women are not as smart as men because of differences in brain size.
