Letter: Lab coats are just for the boys

From Rebecca Wiseman

Once upon a time, a 15-year-old schoolgirl wrote a letter to New
Scientist, and it was published on 2 October 1993. She remarked how sexist
it was that she had to buy a lab coat made for a boy—gorilla-length arms,
small chest (the coat, not the boys).

Well, that schoolgirl is about to need a different type of white
coat—and just for clarification, not a straitjacket—as she is about
to qualify as a dentist. So she goes to a well-known retailer of medical-type
uniforms. And guess what? The dentist’s tunic they sell is tight in the same
places as the lab coat was (perhaps more so), and loose in the places it was
loose. And there’s a new obstacle, too: the press studs are on the right instead
of the left.

So eight years on I have the same problem. But now I draw a more cynical
conclusion. Male dentists/medics/scientists wear white coats because they can
put them through the hospital laundry, and so avoid another domestic duty.

I’ve decided I shall wear what I want at work. Just because it isn’t white
doesn’t mean it’s not clean. Black is more slimming anyway. I shall choose which
stereotypes to take advantage of.

And she lived happily ever after because she could follow fashions at a whim,
and still have a career . . . The End.

London