The above image came up on google images under the heading "women's role in the workplace."

My group on the wards yesterday turned out to be 8 women and one guy, due to the usual scheduling confusions which led half our group to not be able to find our assigned ward.

When our doctor arrived he asked what percentage of our class is female (56ish%) and then launched into a speech about how the fact that medical school classes are now predominantly female signifies the decline of the status of the profession of medicine.

After a moment of silence, in which I suspect most of us were trying to decide whether to be offended or not, we asked him to clarify/expound, here were his examples:

1. Most investment bankers are men.
2. Most first-grade teachers are female.
3. Most neurosurgeons are men. (neurosurgery is an 8 year residency, the female predominance in medical school has happened within the past 10 years, the XX chromosome neurosurgeons are just still in school!)

His logic: Men are drawn to higher status professions so the fact that there are now less men in the medical force is a sign that the status of the field of medicine is declining.

Now I never speak in class unless absolutely supremely necessary. But, after listening to about 5.5 minutes of this, I heard a voice.

I strongly disagree. Said the voice.

I looked around. Oh my goodness, it was my voice.

Just for argument's sake, my voice continued without my approval, couldn't you argue just as validly that the status of women is increasing or that women are now increasingly drawn to traditionally male and "higher status" career choices?

To which he sniffed disdainfully and replied that it's simply a fact that the amount of males in a given profession is an indicator of that profession's status. "I don't necessarily agree with it," he shrugged, "it's just true."

I can't explain why this is making me so angry. Maybe he's right. I don't even care about that. But why would he enter a classroom full of women and say that?

Anyway, what do you all think? Would you find neurosurgery less impressive if most neurosurgeons were women? Would you look down on a man if he were a first-grade teacher? Does the "status" of the medical profession even matter?

And why does this bother me so much?