Description
We like to think that everyone is treated the same when they fall ill. It’s a myth that’s debunked by our panel of special guests, who argue our healthcare system is rooted in colonialism and misogyny.
In her book This Won’t Hurt: How Medicine Fails Women, Dr Marieke Bigg draws on her own healthcare experience and explores how women’s bodies have repeatedly been ignored, misunderstood and misdiagnosed. She’s joined by Dr Annabel Sowemimo, whose book Divided: Racism, Medicine and Why We Need to Decolonise Healthcare, identifies the underlying racism behind the health inequalities that plague the world.
Their research challenges our assumptions and together they will demonstrate how our medicine and methods of diagnoses fail women and ethnic minorities, explore the colonial roots of modern medicine, and discuss why prevailing attitudes that still exist today have had terrible repercussions for women and their bodies.
Related Books
Divided: Racism, Medicine and Why We Need to Decolonise Healthcare
Dr Annabel Sowemimo
Shop on WaterstonesAbout the Authors
Dr Marieke Bigg
Dr Marieke Bigg is a sociologist at the University of Cambridge. Her work focuses on the role of biological models and biologists in public
deliberations on biotechnology and reproductive medicine. She is Science Editor at the online news digest BioNews as well as at the Progress
Educational Trust (PET) which provides news and comment on genetics, assisted conception and stem cell research.
Dr Annabel Sowemimo
Annabel Sowemimo was born and grew up in London, is in her early thirties and is a registrar in sexual health currently working in Leicester. She also runs the charity the Reproductive Justice Initiative which aims to educate and empower specifically BPOC in sexual health matters of all kinds. She’s also working on a PhD at KCL and teaches at KCL, UCL and the London School of Tropical Medicine as well as speaking on all of these matters in the media. The book began as a column on decolonising healthcare for gal-dem. She’s appeared on BBC Two Newsnight, BBC World Service, BBC Radio London, BBC 1Xtra, The Guilty Feminist and many more and contributed to the Guardian, Independent, i paper, Black Ballad, gal-dem and elsewhere.
About the Chair
Remona Aly
Remona Aly is a journalist and broadcaster. She writes for The Guardian, is a regular contributor to BBC Radio 2’s Pause for Thought and a presenter on BBC Radio 4’s Something Understood. She is also an editor and podcast host for various platforms.
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