The Workings of Seattle Grace Hospital
Christina Yang, one of the most influential and powerful female characters on T.V is a surgeon at Seattle Grace Hospital. However, her rise to power in the hospital did not come easy. She faced judgement from her peers, from her employers, and from her employees. People continued to question her ability to lead time and time again, and she continued to prove them wrong.
Potentially the main reason behind people questioning her ability to lead is the fact that she is a woman in a field dominated primarily by men (similar to politicians today). Therefore, what convinced people to put her in such high ranking positions (she’s part owner and on the board of directors of the hospital)? According to Ditonto et al in their paper discussing gender stereotypes, information search, and voting behavior, the reason Christina Yang became such a high ranking doctor is because “male voters examined less trait-oriented information for female candidates…they looked at more competence-related information.” (Ditonto et al, 347) It may have been beneficial for Christina Yang to be in a field dominated by men, because they ended up focusing more on competency than ‘traditional’ female traits.
Schneider and Bos corroborate the idea that Christina Yang’s accomplishments and distinct personality were the reasoning behind her success, and her gender might not have been as much of a hindrance as people might anticipate. This is because they argue that females’ in positions of power are “a subtype of women because they share little stereotype content.” (Schneider & Bos, 249) This leads one to believe that powerful women don’t primarily make decisions based on stereotypical expectations, they have a distinct set of traits that set them apart.
Christina Yang is one of the most hardworking surgeon’s, and through her hard work and perseverance she is now one of the top professionals in her field. One can conclude that if someone “initially doubts a [female’s] competence but seeks out relevant information and learns that she is, in fact, competent, the candidate may not… be at a… disadvantage.” (Ditonto et al, 356) One of my biggest questions after reading about these two studies is whether or not this trend of not allowing gender stereotypes to influence opinions on ability will continue if Hillary Clinton gets elected President? Or will it cause people to scrutinize every move she makes more closely? Hopefully we are aimed towards a society where gender isn’t one of the primary things people look at when making decision’s about their capabilities.
