One tropical disease biology graduate and content creator who shares some very useful study materials, entrance exams and advice with her Instagram followers recently got into an unpleasant situation.

While doing her OSCE exam, the student was “yellow carded for wearing a ‘short skirt.’” Eilidh’s friend posted about the incident on Twitter, asking a question that was probably on many people’s minds: “could someone explain to me how it’s 2021 & medical schools are still pushing sexist notions of primness upon its female student cohort for daring to display their ankles.” There was also an image of Eilidh wearing a classy knee-length dress that’s likely not something that comes to your mind when you hear the word ‘inappropriate.’

So let’s get into the whole incident right below, which hopefully shows just how much patriarchal nonsense women have to endure on a daily basis. And in this instance, academia, sadly, turns out not to be an exception.

A medical student has received an academic penalty for wearing an “inappropriate dress”

Image credits: MedicGrandpa

After her friend shared a post on Twitter, the student herself posted this update on the incident

Image credits: thegradmedic

Image credits: thegradmedic

There is plenty of evidence to show that gender bias plays out against women in academic hiring, tenure and promotion, as well as in teaching evaluations. The unconscious, ingrained nature of gender bias and discrimination can make these barriers pervasive and hard to prove. Combined with widespread sexual harassment in both laboratories and fieldwork, these phenomena can drive young women away from academic careers.

The university tried to explain the incident claiming it was part of a role-play of an exam

Image credits: UniofNewcastle

Nevertheless, they agreed that the examiner was wrong to give the student a penalty of a yellow card

Image credits: UniofNewcastle

Image credits: UniofNewcastle

But the student claimed that was not what happened

Image credits: thegradmedic

So Bored Panda spoke to another woman student who wanted to remain anonymous, who told Bored Panda that patriarchy and discrimination are indeed a painful spot of academia. “I think there needs to be a wider awareness of the nature of these comments—why is it felt that showing some extra skin demeans people’s perception of us professionally?” she told us.

Moreover, the student believes that the whole issue is “steeped in old-fashioned and traditional views that women’s skin may be in some way distracting, or that the sight of the skin above our kneecaps makes us any less professional.”

Sadly, many women keep such stories to themselves, and we only hear a fraction of similar instances that reach the media. “I suppose the issue is that it’s not uncommon at all for doctors and students to fear speaking out publicly for fear of professional repercussions,” the female student commented.

Some people thought the university was right to give the student a penalty for wearing what they called an ‘inappropriate dress’

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Bored Panda dug deeper into the incident and found out from a reliable source that the comment of the dress being the most unprofessional the examiner had seen during her time examining at the university was made after the station had ended and the actor was no longer in character.

Moreover, we found out that it is up to the clinician to lodge a yellow card and that it stated ‘student had short dress with no leg coverings—roleplayer commented immediately after station looks unprofessional. I agree.’”

But most of the people couldn’t wrap their head around the whole situation and supported the student

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