"What does it say about this country that this is the state of our discourse? That Kavanaugh even stands any chance of being made one of the most powerful figures in the American government, with control over life and liberty?" currentaffairs.org/2018/09/how-we… "He went before the United States Senate and showed total contempt for his vow to tell the truth. He attempted to portray a highly esteemed doctor as a crazy person, by consistently misrepresenting the evidence. He treated the public like we were idiots..."

One of the most emotional, awful parts of today for me: 1/2 thru Dr. Ford's opening statement, I became attuned to a sense of relief. It took me a second, then I realized I was reacting to:
-Her whiteness
-Her country club background
-Her level of education & sophistication
1/ Because surely *this* woman could be believed. A woman of color, a poor woman, an uneducated woman - these women would be dismissed, torn apart, stripped of credibility and humiliated well before the hearing today and utterly destroyed within it. 2/

Yale continues to elevate a School of Medicine faculty member known to have committed sexual harassment. This is how academic institutions foster a toxic culture for women yaledailynews.com/blog/2018/09/0…

This is my beloved alma mater, and I know we can do better @TIMESUPNOW @nytimes Over 650 students, residents, faculty, and alumni have signed a letter to Yale President Salovey protesting this decision as well as Dean Alpern’s role in addressing harassment over the years, which included a reluctance to penalize Simons in any meaningful way.

Apropos of nothing, I thought I'd muse a little on what pathological narcissists do when backed into a corner. Narcissists are self-focused, have an inflated, grandiose sense of self, and rarely cede personal goals to other ideals.

Obama’s description of Aretha Franklin, and why she moved him, is just perfection:

newyorker.com/magazine/2016/…

“Nobody embodies more fully the connection between the African-American spiritual, the blues, R. & B., rock and roll—the way that hardship and sorrow were transformed ... ... into something full of beauty and vitality and hope. American history wells up when Aretha sings. That’s why, when she sits down at a piano and sings ‘A Natural Woman,’ she can move me to tears—...

Thrilled to work with @DGlaucomflecken to develop an infographic about correct nomenclature when discussing gender bias in academia. Follow along. (By "work with" I mean I ranted for a while and he put together this whole infographic from it)

Polls just closed in Ohio. Will be nervous tweeting here. BREAKING NEWS: “Too early to call.”

News is really ridiculous sometimes, right?

So on the one hand we have people telling patients to MAKE SURE YOUR DOCTOR DOES A FULL ADMISSION OR YOU HAVE OUT OF POCKET EXPENSES

And on the other end we have FULL ADMISSIONS EXPOSES PATIENTS TO REAL RISK OF HARM

It’s so charming being an ER doc these days

https://twitter.com/zackcooperyale/status/1025489756598296579

I didn’t even mention the routine review of every 48-hour BOUNCE BACK - WHY DID YOU DISCHARGE THIS PATIENT?

I’ve never been told by my hospital to unnecessarily admit patients & I think 99.9% of physicians just do what they truly think patients need.

“Are women harsher on women than men are?” This is a question that comes up once or twice or a thousand times during my talks. So here’s the thing. First, I have not seen data that supports this. I *have* seen data that shows that women have *as much* bias against women in the workplace as men do, but not more. Perhaps it exists, and I don’t know about it.

My next hypothetical book will be entitled “On the Golf Course: How Systems of Gender Inequity are Fostered in Plain View.” The culture of broships allows terrible behavior to flourish and sustains leadership structures in which only men can thrive. “It’s just golf.” Right, right. Along with hours and hours to walk and talk and bond and negotiate and make implicit and explicit agreements. On a regular basis. That can’t possibly affect you when a peer is up for promotion or disciplinary action.

It can take a lot of time. I do it between things - while I'm waiting on line, in a boring meeting, rocking a sleeping child.... For me, it's a filler. It’s not the main event. A5/#behavioralmedchat

https://twitter.com/DrSherryPagoto/status/1025068232338825216

Except for rare circumstances, what I post is spontaneous. I toss it out there, misspellings and weird grammar and all. I don’t waste time agonizing or planning posts. A5/#behavioralmedchat

Tweets are so ephemeral it's hard to feel that it makes real impact. Once in a while, you feel that you have entered people’s brainspace in a meaningful way. More commonly, it’s more about steadily contributing drops to the ocean of conversation on a topic. A4/#behavioralmedchat

https://twitter.com/DrSherryPagoto/status/1025065666062282754

I have this thing about authenticity. You can kind of tell when people are going for attention and RTs and follows. There are a million people trying to get hits. There is only one voice that is yours. A4/ #behavioralmedchat

Fellow fighters: a word about state races.

You may be thinking, "why should I get excited about a state seat, let alone one far from me? I'll save my $ and efforts for the exciting national Senate seats." I felt this way until I attended a @Sister_District event. During the part of the presentation entitled "Why States Matter," I broke out in a cold sweat. I realized I had been totally neglecting state races out of sheer ignorance.

Here's why state seats matter:

This runs counter to the advice I give to women and minority physicians, and I’d like to explain why.

https://twitter.com/medicalaxioms/status/1021526660091265025

First, I will say that for the past 5 years or so I have had a special interest in the many “gaps” between white men and all others when it comes to the careers of physicians.

Years ago, when I attended my first faculty promotion seminar, I asked how the promotions process protected against gender bias. The moderator said there were several women on the promotions panel. 🤔 Now, knowing more about gender bias, and how both men and women tend to be biased against women, I feel less good about that answer.

Couple of clarifications around sexual harassment and abuse on campuses, in light of the Richard Strauss case: newsweek.com/who-richard-st… 1. The majority of these cases involve women, so we often ignore male victims. Men also experience grave mental and physical sequelae from abuse. In my advocacy for women, I could do a better job of pointing this out.

Via the brilliant Anoka Faruqee, an open letter to the media and all Trump critics. "I have a problem with how some of you speak of Trump. I often hear you focus on his personal shortcomings, calling him naive, stupid, incompetent, embarrassing, unstable, and unpredictable." "Trump is negligent, dangerous, sociopathic, disgraceful, corrupt and self-serving. I prefer to use these words b/c each of these words implies the consequences of Trump’s actions and they assume a subject and an object-- or a network of people and objects in a larger system."

Seven ways an “unbiased” compensation scheme can systematically hurt women. Feel free to add on. #WomenInMedicine 1. Discretionary bonuses calculated internally and nontransparently, open to bias

I'm going to write a book called, "Is It Gender Bias, Or Do I Just Suck?" Preview in the posts, below. Q: Every time I speak up in faculty meeting, I get ignored or talked over or dismissed. Is it gender bias, or do I just suck?

A: It's gender bias.

Interesting question that gets at my central concern about declaring a major interest in advancing careers of #WomeninMedicine or #MinoritiesinMedicine, particularly as a research interest - cc @NarjustDuma

https://twitter.com/narjustduma/status/1015715511630430209

The last time I gave a talk on gender bias in medicine, a faculty member asked me if it had hurt my career to speak on this topic. I was taken aback, but then realized it was a smart question.

Senior mentors have tremendous, disproportionate power over the careers of trainees and junior faculty in academia and medicine. In some cases, a single person holds sway over who advances in an area and who doesn't. This is a total set up for abuse. 1/

https://twitter.com/VinayPrasadMD/status/1014766643556126720

I think this is often a gendered interaction, but to be clear- it happens across the board. One senior professor can sabotage someone's career over difference of opinion, jealousy, or whimsy. It's terrifying & there should be more in place to check that from happening. 2/