book review:
emotional female by Yumiko Kadota Words by Ngoc Lan Tran Emotional Female is Yumiko Kadota’s memoir of the rise and fall of her life’s journey dedicated to an ambition of becoming a young plastic surgeon. Throughout all of the years and milestones in her life, Kadota’s work ethic is nothing short of impeccable. In-between university studies, she organised Med Camp and volunteered at the aged-care ward of a local hospital. As a trainee surgeon she worked diligently on her knowledge and skills, honing
them to the point that her superiors had to acknowledge how advanced she was compared to her peers. Kadota’s lifestyle is also an aspiration for many; she trains and completes marathons and triathlons; she wakes up at 4.30am to exercise, cooks breakfast, and prepares lunch before work. Kadota plans out her life with such vigilance and precision that it was no surprise her fastidiousness made her an excellent surgeon. Yet she gave it all up. Now a former medical practitioner, Kadota authored Emotional Female not to boast about her achievements, but rather to admit and come to terms with her demise. Kadota’s dream disintegrated when the dark reality started to creep in. During her years as a registrar, she had done over 100 hours of overtime work. The reason? She kept getting rostered on for 10 days of back-to-back 24-hour shifts every fortnight, meaning that she barely had any time to sleep, cook, exercise, or take care of herself in any way that she has expected. Her physical and mental health slowly but steadily deteriorated; she slept on hospital beds more often than she slept at home which increasingly concerned her colleagues. Worse than that, being a woman of colour in the medical field also meant that Kadota had to ignore the casual sexist remarks and racist microaggressions if she wanted to excel through the male-dominated ranks of medicine. More often than not, the offenders are male doctors who abuse
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