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We thank Drs. Holroyd-Leduc and Straus for their thoughtful response.1 We agree that any form of discrimination is unacceptable, including the lower limits reported in the literature, and mechanisms to mitigate it are required. We draw further attention to another gap in the current literature: investigating the numerous social divisions (i.e., gender identity, sexual identity, sexual orientation, race, ability, class, social norms, etc) that lead to discrimination. Typically, discrimination is classified under the terms of distinctions of gender and race, yet everyday experiences are often more complicated.
For example, gender and sex are not natural binaries. Certain individuals transcend biological phenotypic categories;2 gender may be contextualized, socialized, and dynamic. Just as the demographics of physicians are shifting to include nearly a majority of women, so is the spectrum of gender identities and sexual orientations. Despite this, little is known about the experiences of ‘non-conforming’ physicians in contemporary practice.
In sociology, privilege encompasses the real or perceived advantages that are available to a particular individual or group.3 The opposite of privilege is disability, and the individual deprivation of power and authority by societal structures and policies create disempowerment.4 Disempowerment to connote disability results from complex sociostructural factors.4 Furthermore, privilege and disempowerment exist along a dyna...
Show MoreCompeting Interests: None declared.