A Qualitative Study of Sexual Harassment of Female Doctors by Patients

This paper reports the qualitative data from a study of sexual harassment of female family physicians by patients. In addition to the everyday harassment that any woman might encounter in a work setting, the physicians in this study also reported types of harassment which are unique to the practice of medicine. These include opportunistic harassment such as exposure of the genitals, inappropriately touching the physician when the examination requires close contact, excessive discussion of sexual matters for apparent erotic gratification, and acting out behaviours from non-competent patients. Other reported behaviours were not, strictly speaking, sexual harassment but were troublesome nonetheless, including spontaneous erections during physical examinations, physically intimidating behaviour, and ambiguous behaviours which were sexual in nature, but difficult to interpret. The findings are discussed in the context of theory pertaining to contrapower harassment. It is concluded that for some patients the gender of the physician takes precedence over her occupational status and, this combined with the unique characteristics of the doctor/patient relationship, can make the practice of family medicine more conductive to sexual harassment than other professions.