In preparation for the upcoming presentation at the American Dental Education Association (ADEA) conference my co-presenter and I decided to ask students to share examples of microaggressions they have experienced that we would then videotape and share in the talk. We felt this would help us explain the concept and how it can manifest in dental education.
We received several submissions, but while the people were willing to share, everyone expressed a preference for someone other than themselves to read their comments. Every submission received was from a female student, and all but one was from a second year dental student.
While we anticipated receiving comments that would illustrate the concept, I didn't anticipate the collective power of hearing so many examples at one time. Particularly since they were all submitted by women I was left feeling like there's a lot of work to do to secure gender equity in dentistry. I'm very pleased to be doing this work.