“How can the new government support women doctors?”
By Dr Katherine Wise
How can the new government support women doctors,
Who stitch up the world while unravelling themselves?
Tired feet echo in halls where they’ve stood twice as long,
For half the praise,
Stretching on tiptoes to reach high tables,
Built for taller men, not for them.
They face patients, death, the grind of each day,
But also systems that choke them out,
Cutting hours, cutting corners,
Cutting them down when they dare raise concerns.
How do they navigate wards filled with gendered doubts,
Where respect is earned through battles
Not fought by their male counterparts?
Their voices still questioned, their knowledge ignored,
Until proven, proven again, and proven once more.
How can the new government support women doctors,
When every advancement is a silent war—
Childcare battles waged in whispers,
Maternity leave a distant dream,
Careers carved out between family and fatigue,
As if they must choose between saving others and kissing little noses goodnight?
They work harder, longer, just to be seen,
But recognition is a fleeting shadow,
Pay gaps yawning wide like open wounds.
Burnout hits harder when the flame is forced to burn brighter.
When will the new government see them,
Not as exceptions,
But as essential, equal, every day?
How can the new government support women doctors,
In surgical wards where #MeToo is met with deflection,
Where speaking up feels like cutting into uncharted flesh,
Exposing truths buried under layers of silence?
Scrubbing is for voices,
Dismissed as too sensitive, too loud,
Told to toughen up, to keep quiet,
To not ruin careers built on the backs of unchallenged power.
It’s a battle fought under harsh lights,
Where every word spoken feels like another incision,
And every truth revealed leaves a scar that never quite heals.
They need more than words on paper,
More than speeches and token promises.
Real change is in the policies that don’t just let them survive,
But thrive. Affordable childcare in reach,
Paid leave without guilt, mentorship that matters—
A system that doesn’t punish them for wanting more.
How can the new government support women doctors?
By dismantling the walls they hit daily,
And building a system where they are not just healers,
But leaders.
Where their work is valued,
And their struggle is heard.
