"You just need a man to figure it out"

Setting: the female fellow and male attending are working to place a new dialysis graft in the patient's arm.

They are trying to figure out how to work with a different tunneler when the attending says, "You just need a man to figure it out."

At another point in the surgery when the fellow was questioning the position and number of the vessel clamps, he again responded, "You just need a man to figure it out."


In both these instances, the fellow half-heartedly laughed in response. Was the attending saying this in a joking manner? Yes. Does that make it ok? I say no.

Just some food for thought.