I had been following Yumiko Kadota on social media for quite some time, so I was keen to read her memoir once it was out. After chasing her passion and love for medicine, Yumiko had to resign from the Australian public health system owning to the burnout. By covering some hundred consecutive hours each month and barely leaving any window to sleep, Yumiko’s health and spirits were sure to hit rock bottom.
You’ll be shocked to learn how prejudice, harassment, sexism is still very much a part of our society! Despite taking her case to the higher officials many times, no one took serious action for Yumiko’s benefit. Instead, a colleague quickly suggested continuing taking those prolonged working hours simply because it seemed to be a good fit for the profile. Please tell me what more is hurtful than to see the reality of your dreams crashing down in pieces. A young, passionate, self-driven medical student who gained her joys from anything that had to do with the surgery remotely got slowly turned into an isolated, depressed woman. If that isn’t cruelty, I don’t know what is.
You can feel something is massively wrong when one starts to consider self-harm as a mode of escapism.
Yumiko Kadota’s Emotional Female is a daunting eye-opener to Australian hospitals and the health system’s inhumanity. She has borne her entire soul by sharing every bit of her vulnerable being. I hope this memoir brings a powerful sense of change in the system where everyone gets to be treated with the basics- respect and understanding of human rights.
It is hard to sum up the courage, revisit some nerve-wracking moments from your life, and then voice all of it in the form of a book. More power to you, Yumiko!
Title: Emotional Female
Author: Yumiko Kadota
Publisher: Penguin Books Australia
Pages: 400
RRP: $34.99