Dr. Betty Messazos-Trapetsas is a pediatric doctor at Melbourne's Royal Children's Hospital. She completed her Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery at the University of Cambridge, in the UK and her pediatric training at Oxford University Hospital. She returned to Australia in 2014 for a Fellowship in pediatric endocrinology at the Royal Children’s Hospital and a clinical research with stem cells at the Murdoch Institute of Clinical Research.
Dr. Messazos-Trapetsas was hosted by SBS Greek and talked about the challenges of being a female doctor in Australia today. She referred to the difficulty of having a career in medicine, especially coming from an ethnic background that the tradition requires women to stay at home and raise children. 'Your whole career is about studies, hard work, late nights, shift work, moving to different countries, towns and cities and in different specialities and hospitals.'
Supporting young professionals
Her interest in medical education for the wider community lead to her becoming a founding member of the Hellenic Medical Society of Australia (HMSA) and organizing educational seminars in Greek for the wider community.
Greek Australian Dr. Messazos-Trapetsas believes that it does require a degree of tenacity and resilience to cope with the working conditions. 'But is it different for women?', Dr. Messazos-Trapetsas wonders and continues: 'I think that there are specific areas that need to offer more support for women. When entering the world of medicine, many men and women have or want to have a family and this is challenging. Not all available positions are part-time work or job sharing work, so there is an increase in pressure.'
Dr. Messazos-Trapetsas says that there need to be more roles for women in medical departments as well as in leadership positions. 'This should be constantly addressed and we need to work towards creating roles and to support women in training," she told SBS Greek.
About the #metoo movement
Asking Dr. Messazos-Trapetsas whether she agrees with the #metoo movement, the international movement against sexual harassment and sexual assault, she told SBS Greek that she doesn't have a strong opinion based on personal experiences. 'I never had any sort of feelings that were directed personally to me because of my gender or of my Greek background. Also, I am in the department of paediatrics, and perhaps that is a bit different.'
She says that there is an on-going discussion on this topic, mainly in different areas of medicine or in surgery. she believes that there has been transparency in her industry in the most recent years. 'There are procedures, guidelines and a lot of work have been done to support training. I think the culture is changing and that is really reassuring".
Η Δρ. Σιάνα Παναγιωτοπούλου, η νοσηλεύτρια Ερωφίλη Καούλλα και η παιδίατρος Δρ. Μπέτυ Μεσάζου–Τραπέτσα Source: SBS Greek
The next generation of professionals
The message that Dr. Messazos-Trapetsas wishes to convey to the younger female professionals, is that they should be aware before entering this highly competitive industry.
She is optimistic that the next generation will not be part of a culture that existed 30 or 40 years ago. 'We are moving to a direction of more equality, awareness, and respect.'
'Today's girls need to be inspired, to dream and to achieve their goals. There is still work to be done but the faculty is rewarding'
Dr. Messazos-Trapetsas has been a volunteer doctor and dentist in developing countries like Nepal, Cuba and within Australia she has worked with aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory. She is a passionate advocate for children's health and health education. She has been the lead doctor on many camps for children with diabetes in Australia as well as the UK.
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