The Image of the Male and Female Doctors in the Covid-19 Pandemic. The First Pandemic with Woman Doctors in the Front Line

Abstract

The last great pandemic, the Spanish flu of 1918, took place at a time when the number of women graduating from medical schools was still very low. Assistant, nurses, and volunteer helpers worked in military and camp hospitals in World War I in treating war wounds or injuries and caring for the flu patients. But the Covid-19 epidemic is the first pandemic in which female professionals participated in the front line, working as doctors or pharmacists.During turbulent times like the pandemic, the physician ( regardless of gender) as a person has become vulnerable, the image and the control of image are much more difficult in contemporary society.Throughout history, the medical community seeks to create an image appropriate to the current social, historical, and political era. At the same time, the doctor more or less successfully forms the individual image in the local community, where he/she works.In quiet periods and epochs, doctors have the time and material resources necessary for the organization, respectively professional and individual development. During historical, political, social, and health crises ( wars, dictatorships, recessions, epidemics) a large number of patients, the struggle with time and limited resources lead to a disorganized, spontaneous activity.The difference between organized and disorganized activity is the image.But image control is much more difficult today, in a pandemic, in a society based on permanent communication.