So ingrained in medicine is the notion that doctors are male, that even healthcare professionals are guilty of the same bias.

But the time has come to challenge the status quo by assuming all doctors are women until proven otherwise, says a Harvard professor of neurology.

Writing in the BMJ, Professor Elizabeth Loder, who is also a clinical editor at the journal, argues since female doctors will soon outnumber men in many developed countries, it’s time to start using ‘she’ instead of ‘he’ when referring to an unknown doctor.

“The stereotype that doctors are men persists at a time when almost half of physicians are female — and it has been internalised by women physicians like me — so it’s a problem that needs to be fixed,” she says.