Award Winning Author To Speak At Tech About Gender Bias In Healthcare

Tennessee Tech welcomes journalist and author Maya Dusenbery Monday night as the Center Stage and Women’s Center speaker.

Status of Women Commission University Chair Stephanie Adams said Dusenbery will speak about her book Doing Harm: The Truth About How Bad Medicine and Lazy Science Leaves Women Dismissed, Misdiagnosed and Sick.

“One of the things that this books does is open people’s eyes to the gender bias in healthcare, and we hope it will encourage them to advocate for themselves in one of the most important aspects in all of our lives which is health and wellness,” Adams said.

Adams said Dusenbery uses personal interviews and research to present a picture of how sexism harms women in medicine. Adams said the presentation and question and answer session will give a diverse perspective.

“Historically, the medical community knows less about women’s diseases and bodies which has lead to the issues chronicled in her book,” Adams said. “Medicine has historically been approached from a white male perspective and that has sometimes lead to catastrophic results for women and persons of color.”

Dusenberry travels from Oregon to speak at Derryberry Hall at 7:00 p.m. Her book Doing Harm was named one of the best books of 2018 by National Public Radio, a New York Times Editors’ Choice and the 2019 winner of the Minnesota Book Award.

“Women’s health conditions and concerns are consistently neglected and dismissed, and her book is a wake up call to change the way we look at healthcare for women,” Adams said.

Adams said Center Stage programs are meant to enrich the lives of students as well as the general public. Adams said the commission is excited for Dusenberry to visit as she has been scheduled for the past year, but COVID delayed the original date.