Intended for healthcare professionals

Rapid response to:

Feature Christmas 2018: Equal to the Task

The trouble with girls: obstacles to women’s success in medicine and research—an essay by Laurie Garrett

BMJ 2018; 363 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.k5232 (Published 13 December 2018) Cite this as: BMJ 2018;363:k5232

Rapid Response:

Re: The trouble with girls: obstacles to women’s success in medicine and research—an essay by Laurie Garrett

This is a very powerful piece. (1).

As a father of a teenage daughter, I desire a society which is fair, free of obstacles and helps her to achieve her full potential. I hope this article encourages the society to make the necessary changes as quickly as possible.

But the paragraph about Tim Hunt does make me uncomfortable .

Could the author read the investigative piece by Louise Mensch and either offer rebuttals or clarifications, or apologies.(2).

Wikipedia page on Tim Hunt says : “ Trish Greenhalgh said that only "those who went on hearsay" would call him sexist.” It would be great to hear from Trish_Greenhalgh whether the Wikipedia article is an accurate reflection of her views. (3).

References:
1. The trouble with girls: obstacles to women’s success in medicine and research—an essay by Laurie Garrett. BMJ 2018; 363 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.k5232 (Published 13 December 2018).

2. Louise Mensch: The Tim Hunt Debacle. https://medium.com/@LouiseMensch/the-tim-hunt-debacle-c914395d5e01 (accessed 16 Dec 2018).

3. Wikipedia. Tim Hunt: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Hunt (accessed 16 Dec 2018).

Competing interests: No competing interests

16 December 2018
Santhanam Sundar
Consultant Oncologist
Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust