A doctor claims Drexel punished her for speaking out about gender discrimination. She sent out Evites to the trial.
Former Drexel doctor Sharon Griswold is rallying female peers to show up for her day in federal court. She had complained for years that Drexel treated female faculty worse than male counterparts.
In her Evite, former Drexel University medical school professor Sharon Griswold is smiling in a photo framed by colorful confetti.
But her invitation is not to a typical party. The Evite includes the following event details:
When: Monday, July 28, at 9 a.m.
Where: James A. Byrne U.S. Courthouse at 601 Market Street. Courtroom 8-B.
“Please join me at trial,” reads the Evite she sent to female doctors around Philadelphia and beyond.
Griswold, 57, a longtime emergency medicine doctor and professor, is inviting supporters to the start of her civil rights discrimination case against Drexel’s College of Medicine.
Griswold sued Drexel in 2022, calling its leadership a “boys’ club” and saying she was punished for repeatedly speaking up about sex discrimination and told to “get over it,” according to her lawsuit.
Griswold was the first full-time female professor in Drexel’s emergency medicine department when she was hired in 2007.
She first complained to her department chair in 2017 that Drexel’s male-dominated leadership in her department was hostile and dismissive of her and other female employees, while men were promoted more often and treated better, her lawsuit says.
Drexel has denied any wrongdoing. In court filings, the university argues its leadership took Griswold’s complaints about sex discrimination seriously and promoted her multiple times. The university says she was laid off along with hundreds of doctors and staff, because Hahnemann University Hospital in Center City closed in 2019. Griswold taught Drexel’s medical students, residents, and fellows who trained at Hahnemann, where she also treated patients.
In March 2024, the federal judge presiding over the case partially sided with Drexel and ruled against Griswold’s claim that she was fired solely because of her gender. The judge concluded that none of the male colleagues Griswold cited as being allowed to keep their jobs amid layoffs were in comparable situations. But the judge also found that Griswold had presented enough evidence for a jury to decide whether Drexel fired her in retaliation for complaining about sex discrimination and subjected her to a hostile work environment in violation of city, state, and federal antidiscrimination laws.
In an unusual move, Griswold is asking female doctors to attend the trial not only to support her, but also to stand up for women in medicine who have faced discrimination in what remains a male-dominated field, particularly in emergency medicine. Although women make up half of all medical students, only 27% of emergency medicine doctors in academia are female, and they remain underpaid and underrecognized, according to a 2019 study in an academic journal focused on emergency medicine.
In addition to the Evite, Griswold recently posted details about her trial to the Philly Physician Moms Group, a private Facebook group with 4,200 members. She asked group members to “please send positive vibes and share widely.”
Griswold’s Facebook post has rallied dozens of supportive comments and heart emoji on social media, according to a screengrab obtained by The Inquirer.
Among the Facebook responses shared by group members with a reporter: “You are not alone.” “Solidarity.” “You’re inspiring.”
As of Thursday morning, the post had 43 comments and 60 heart emojis.
Katie Eyer, professor at Rutgers Law School and an expert on antidiscrimination law, called the Evite “a unique tact” to help ensure Griswold has a community around her. Eyer didn’t know details about Griswold’s case, but said civil rights cases “are incredibly difficult to win and they also tend to be incredibly emotionally taxing and isolating.”
Griswold, who is now a professor at Penn State Health and director of global medical affairs at Merck, declined The Inquirer’s request to comment for this article.
Drexel officials also declined to comment, citing pending litigation.
Lawyers representing both Drexel and Griswold did not respond to calls or emails from a reporter.
‘GO TIME to fight back’
In her Facebook post to the Philly Physician Moms Group, Griswold noted that she has spent her career, which includes nearly a decade at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, “working very hard for education and patient safety.”
“It is GO TIME to fight back,” she posted.
The Inquirer talked to three female doctors, including one traveling from California, who received the Evite and plan to attend parts or all of the trial.
Another doctor, Monica Brocco, said she was unable to attend but will be cheering on Griswold. Brocco, an emergency medicine doctor at St. Mary’s Hospital in Langhorne who graduated from Drexel’s medical school, described Griswold as an “incredible teacher” and “outspoken fierce advocate.”
“The David and Goliath nature of this lawsuit is magnified by the patriarchal nature of medicine,” Brocco said. “Sharon continues to stand bravely in the face of this. If she were a man, she’d be the man.”
Heidi Baer, an emergency medicine doctor who also did her residency under Griswold, plans to attend on Monday.
“I want to support Sharon as my mentor and also as a woman who stands up for the things she believes in — honesty, integrity, accountability,“ Baer said. ”Her resilience is really a testament to her kindness and her brilliance.”
Griswold’s day in court is also drawing to Philadelphia federal court Pringl Miller, a California-based surgeon and the founder of Physician Just Equity, an advocacy group for female and underrepresented doctors.
“Medicine is such a hierarchical, traditionally white male field,” Miller said. “People who are not the white male, cis-majority are very vulnerable in their positions. You could be doing everything perfectly in your job, but if you cross someone who is not doing things perfectly in their job, they will take you out.”
Miller added, “I admire Sharon for her courage to sue. Not a lot of women have the support systems to do that.”
Such public support from peers in a lawsuit against a big institution is uncommon, said Eyer, the Rutgers law professor.
“Often former colleagues are afraid to be supportive because they themselves often fear retaliation if they are still with the same employer,” Eyer said.
“For many antidiscrimination plaintiffs, the hardest aspect of the case is people who they thought of as friends and allies essentially refusing to stand up and support them.”
`Cut off’ from Drexel
After repeatedly speaking up about gender discrimination to Drexel’s administrators, Griswold filed complaints with the university’s Office of Equality and Diversity and human resources in 2019. About a month after filing, university leaders placed her on administrative leave, court records show.
They cited a possible violation of university policy, forbidding her to be on campus or have any contact with staff or students during the leave. Two armed police officers escorted her out of the building, according to court records.
About two months later, Griswold sent an email to Drexel leaders, saying she was distraught over false and retaliatory accusations. “I have been cut off from my professional identity, email, and my students for seven weeks,” she wrote, according to her lawsuit.
In a legal filing in response, Drexel says Griswold was placed on paid administrative leave while the Public Safety Department investigated a complaint from two employees who said they overheard her threatening to burn down a university building.
Griswold denied making any such statement.
Public safety closed its investigation with “no findings” in early 2020 and Drexel ended her administrative leave, according to court records filed by Drexel and Griswold.
By then, however, Drexel had terminated her employment. Griswold was one of dozens of faculty doctors given six-months’ notice that they would be out of a job by January 2020 because of Hahnemann hospital’s closure.
In her March 2024 ruling, U.S. District Judge Nitza Quiñones Alejandro found that Drexel hampered Griswold’s efforts to find another position internally by blocking any contact with the university while she was on administrative leave.
The judge also noted that Drexel’s legal counsel instructed the public safety department to put a hold on its investigation, which delayed its conclusion, after Griswold filed a discrimination complaint with the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission.
The trial, with opening arguments on Monday morning, is expected to continue into the week.