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Angelin Lopez

Dr. S. Nelson

English 1301- 119

2 November 2022

The Rhetorical Effectiveness of “Women’s experiences of medical miss-diagnosis: How

does gender matter in healthcare settings?”

In August of 1920, the women's suffrage movement became successful when the 19th

amendment was ratified, allowing women to vote. This gave a sense of equality for women after

their long agonizing fight from inequality. Yet as time has progressed, this inequality is still seen

now, especially in a healthcare setting where "female bodies continue to be underrepresented in,

or entirely excluded, from clinical trials, so that little is known about how certain diseases affect

women’s material condition specifically" (Thompson and Blake 23). In the article, "Women's

experiences of medical miss-diagnosis: How does gender matter in healthcare settings?" Jessica

Thompson and Denise Blake, effectively persuade and advocate to their audience of the

importance of equality in women's health through a 'man-made' medical world in which a

combination of research (logos), credibility (ethos), and emotions (pathos) is used as a means to

support their claim of how underrepresentation of the women's body, as well as not being taken

seriously, can all have serious implications towards a women's physical and mental health which

could be potentially fatal.

To begin, this article is heavily supported and cited by additional research that has

previously been conducted and is “guided by feminist principles” (Thompson and Blake 22) as

well as is assisted by an interview done with eight women in New Zealand on the
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"misdiagnosis['s] of conditions that equally affect female and male bodies." (Thompson and

Blake 22) The recurring use of logos is an effective rhetorical appeal mainly found throughout

the article, along with some appearances of pathos and ethos. One of the first issues discussed in

the article is the rates of misdiagnosis in women compared to men. As stated, and supported in

the article, "Research in the United States shows the rates of misdiagnosis (26%) are higher than

those of surgical accident (25%). Studies also show that women are misdiagnosed at much

higher rates than men. Women in the United Kingdom, Brazil, Germany, and New Zealand are

30-75 percent more likely to be misdiagnosed for illnesses that equally affect women and men."

(Thompson and Blake 22) The usage of logos in this piece of the article helps in intellectually

appealing to the audience by using facts and statistics to not only be seen as credible through

feminist principles but also to exemplify the accuracy of the claim they have made with the

support of their evidence.

In addition, while the use of logos is massively spread throughout the entire article,

Pathos is instilled and seen with some of the examples of logos as well. "Further research has

identified that women are frequently dismissed from healthcare settings without appropriate tests

being conducted, leading to failures in helpful and accurate diagnosis […] Delays in diagnosis

can produce self-doubt, psychological distress, social isolation, family strain, increased physical

discomfort and treatment-seeking delays, all resulting in heavy illness burdens and potentially

death." (Thompson and Blake 24,28) The successful usage of both Pathos and Logos in this

piece of article serves to intellectually and emotionally appeal to the audience through the

research conducted. The usage of this research is then implemented in a way to make viewers,

such as women, feel anxious and scared but mostly, angry about the way women get treated in a

medical setting even through self-advocacy where "Some of the women in these studies were
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told they were ‘over exaggerating’ or that their symptoms were ‘all in your head'." (Thompson

and Blake 24) Following the feministic principles this article aims to follow, much of the

evidence successfully aligns together exemplifying the effectiveness of the rhetorical appeal

'pathos' in being able to persuade the audience into feeling a certain way over the standard of

how seriously medical professionals take women's health.

In relation, throughout the article, Jessica Thompson and Denise Blake discuss the

'prejudice' and 'biased' gender stereotypes that come with misdiagnoses in women's health. In the

article, the statement is made with a valid citation that, "…knowledge is derived from research

conducted on male bodies and generalized to female bodies" (Thompson and Blake 23), as well

as, "When attention is paid to female bodies in medical research, it focuses on a ‘bikini model’ of

health, as described by Wenger (2004), which centers health on female reproductive systems

(menstruation, pregnancy, childbirth, menopause). […] This narrow conceptualization produces

huge gaps in medical knowledge, and also contributes to disparate health outcomes."(Thompson

and Blake 24) It is these statements that are proceeded to be sourced, that make them fall under

the rhetorical appeal of logos yet, the information itself can be used to inflict a feeling (pathos)

of inequality and lack of representation. It is this that fuels the fire to the potential audience,

which one can assume is partly feminist, and persuades them into agreeing with their claim.

Finally, near the closing of the article, Thompson and Blake both exemplified an instance

of ethos while listing their credentials alongside their closing statement. "Misdiagnosis and the

poor healthcare experiences for women in healthcare settings are still happening, despite

attention first being drawn to this issue over 30 years ago (Munch, 2004). Misdiagnosis has

significant health implications for women, their families and the wider community. As such, we

must continue to work towards addressing this serious social injustice for the health and
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wellbeing of all. Failure to continue to do so has potentially fatal consequences." (Thompson and

Blake 32) Ending this proclamation and then continuing to list their credentials such as Jessica

Thompson being "a member of the School of Psychology at Massey University" while "val[uing]

collaborative feminist research as a way to challenge embedded injustices around gender"

(Thompson and Blake 32) , and Denise Blake being "a member of the School of Psychology at

Massey University" whose "research concerns issues of social justice, including identity,

welfare, health and disaster management" (Thompson and Blake 32) all add to build credibility

as a way to effectively persuade their audience in seeming reputable in the fight of social

injustice in women’s health.

In conclusion, Thompson and Blake successfully and effectively use all three rhetorical

appeals, Ethos, Pathos, and Logos, in the article "Women's experience of medical miss-

diagnosis: How does gender matter in healthcare settings?" to get their point across. Not only do

they adequately use statistics and facts as a way to back up their claim for the lack of

representation in the medical world, but they also use credibility and feministic emotions to

continuously push and advocate for their claim. Along with this, the entirety of the article was

guided by feminist principles, worked only with cited and sourced material, as well as revealed

and discussed many important topics that women still see to this day, such as not being taken

seriously by medical professionals, and being subjected to 'male norms' that differ between men

and women and cause cases of misdiagnosis because of underrepresentation. Overall, both

Thompson and Blake have effectively used rhetorical appeals as a means to persuade their

viewers while also continuing to speak out on social injustices that women face today.
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Work Cited
Thompson, Jessica and Denise Blake. “Women’s experiences of medical miss-diagnosis: How

does gender matter in healthcare settings?” Women’s Studies Journal, vol. 34, no.1/2, pp. 22-36.

EBSCOhost, https://web.p.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=5&sid=d27f0543-

e66d-4689-ae4b-c066668662e6%40redis . Assessed 31 October 2022