| Female Physicians to Discuss Sexual Harassment
Cases at Press Conference Saturday To:
Assignment Desk, Daybook Editor News Advisory: Dr. Vikki Hufnagel. surgeon and director of the Center for Female Reconstructive Surgery, and Dr. Margaret Jensvold, psychiatrist and director of the Institute for Research on Women's Health, will discuss their own sexual harassment cases which have exposed issues of sexual harassment, discrimination and sexual abuse in their respective fields of obstetrics/gynecology and psychiatry at a press conference Saturday, Sept. 19, 1992 at 11:45 a.m. in the National Press Club Ballroom, 13th floor, 529 14th St., N.W., Washington, D.C. The press conference will take place during a day-long workshop on sexual harassment and sexual discrimination being held at the National Press Club. Hufnagel and Jensvold claim that there is widespread hierarchical acceptance and protection of institutionalized sexism within the field of medicine and have evidence that they were targeted for career annihilation because they had exposed sexual discrimination and abuse in their respective fields. Hufnagel's 1984 case of sexual harassment against Cedars Sinai Medical Center, the first of its kind in California, is still ongoing and includes charges of rape. Jensvold has a sex discrimination and harassment law suit in process against the Department of Health and Human Services, which administers the National Institute of Mental Health. She feels "my law suit against the NIMH is as important a contribution to medicine and science as any biological study I could have conducted there." Hufnagel is a specialist in obstetrics and gynecology and a researcher, author and lecturer. She has developed an alternative to hysterectomy called female reconstructive surgery (FRS) which she discusses in her book "No More Hysterectomies." An outspoken advocate for women's rights, she co-authored the first informed consent bills for hysterectomy in California and New York. She was the first to fully expose and document the massive female surgical abuse in the United States. Her recent testimony before Congress will be provided. Jensvold is the director of the Institute for Research of Women's Health and maintains a private practice in general adult psychiatry, women's health and clinical psychopharmacology. She is a nationally recognized speaker and researcher on professional and personal gender issues including emotional and health consequences of sexual harassment, menstrually-related mood disorders and pharmacologic treatment of depression in women. |