stevens@teklabs.UUCP (08/12/83)
I recently had an appointment with a new doctor. I didn't know at the time whether he was male or female. Well, a lady walked into the room' I was in and I said "Are you Dr. Smith?" She was highly insulted because she thought I was making allusions that she was not feminine. She didn't believe that I didn't realize that the doctor was male. Draw your own conclusions. Steve Silberberg
kmw@iheds.UUCP (08/15/83)
Steve Silberberg related his experience with not making sexist assumptions:
a woman was offended because he didn't assume she *wasn't* the doctor (!!!).
Don't let the experience throw you, Steve; it could have gone the other
way.
When I moved to a new area and had to find a new doctor, I made an
appointment with one whose name could have belonged to either a woman
or a man, so I walked in carefully devoid of assumptions.
The first person to lead me into the examination room and take my
blood pressure was a man. He was the nurse.
My doctor (a woman) came in after he had taken the case history.
Anyway, no one should be offended if you ask who they are. It's only
if you assume who they are because of sex that they have reason to be
upset.
Kathy Wilber
("No, this isn't his secretary. This is his office-mate.")
(iheds!kmw)