Aaliya Yaqub MD, one of the creators of the campaign. A group of female doctors has come together to empower young women with dreams of pursuing careers in healthcare. The doctors are sharing the roadblocks they’ve faced, and triumphs they’ve met, with the hashtag #GirlsWhoHeal. “I can’t begin to count the number of times I’ve been told not to pursue medicine, not to pursue a difficult specialty, or not to work full time if I wanted to have a family,” writes Dr. Natalie Crawford on Instagram. “It is shocking at first. It breaks your heart. It makes you think that maybe you can’t do it. Eventually, you carry on.” Another doctor shared an incident from dental school, reporting that when after a rough day, she turned to a female mentor for comfort, a man insinuated that she should simply drop out and get married. “An older male doctor looked at me and smirked then commented loudly in front of my colleagues ‘well honey, if you can’t handle a typical work day in the office, you should have just married rich!’ I was stunned,” she writes. The posts have a recurring theme: Men telling women, directly or indirectly, that they belong at home. But the women who started this campaign — Dr. Rola Rabah and Dr. Aaliya Yaqub, see it as much more than that. They see #GirlsWhoHeal, and the corresponding shirts, as a rallying cry for women in the field who are ready to break glass ceilings, and do important work in the medical profession. The complementing shirts, designed by Dr. Rola Rabah say “A woman’s place is in medicine.” The campaign is full of strong, energized doctors who have thrived in their field. “This isn’t a shirt just for physicians, this is for any incredible person in medicine, including dentists, nurses, PAs, physical therapists, lab techs, lovers of science, pharmacist, researchers, therapists, students or anyone else who feels moved by this campaign,” Raba writes. Source
