Sure enough. This happened about four decades ago. Think we live in a dystopia today? {chortle!} You should’ve been a woman in the early 1970s. 😀

Most of the time a woman of my generation expected a certain amount of condescension from doctors, and the assumptions that a) the female patient was, by her nature, not too bright and b) her time was worth nothing.

I’d gone to a gynecologist’s office (interestingly, back in the Day gynecologists were the worst in this regard) for a routine exam. Like all gynecologists at the time, this guy could make you sit in the waiting room until the cows came home — that was to be expected, so you would bring a book or a portable job-related project to work on.

This particular day, they called me into the back office, parked me in an examination room, told me to take off my clothes, don a tissue-paper robe, and assume the position. The room was COLD. Sitting there in a paper gown was uncomfortable, but then the whole procedure is uncomfortable, so a little icy air-conditioning didn’t matter much.

The minutes ticked by. And ticked by. And ticked by. And ticked by. And ticked… About a half-hour or 45 minutes later, I realized it was the lunch hour and most of the staff had left the office. I could hear the doctor and those still at the desk yakking and joking around. Possibly they had forgotten me. Or possibly they simply thought my time was worth nothing and so they could leave me sitting there until they felt moved to get around to proceeding with our (now VERY late) appointment.

I got up. Tossed the gown on the table. Put on my clothing. And walked out. Not one person even noticed me walking out of the office!

That, IMHO, is a variety of disrespect. And indeed it was: the point is that in those days a woman’s time had exactly zero value. So it was OK to waste it by leaving her sitting in an examination room until after you finished eating your lunch and socializing with your coworkers.