Graft-Johnson and Hamilton

sayings: She held to those sayings when she faced sexism and racism as one of the very few women, and women of colour, to work as a doctor in Hamilton hospitals in the 1970s and 1980s, according to CBC. And now, rather than calling her next step "retirement," she says she making room for a younger person to pour into the work of anesthesia, the passion she developed through all these years. She has an infectious laugh and she quick to break into song to calm patients or to hug a colleague to "feel your energy". She sprinkles little sayings and aphorisms into her conversations, delivering them as if the cliche was thought up just for that moment. I worked harder than the men' When de Graft-Johnson came to Hamilton, there were only two doctors who were what she called "visible minorities ladies". "So we stood out, you know," she said. "We were always confused for each other." I didn't want to be the reason for the department not hiring another female.'- Ama de Graft-Johnson, anesthetist, Hamilton Health Sciences She didn't just stand out for the colour of her skin. When she got pregnant, she worked up until two weeks before the baby came, covering every call shift, and came back to work three months after the baby was born. "I worked harder than the men. When she joined the staff of anesthetists working in three major Hamilton hospitals in 1982, she knew the team wondered if she'd be able to work as hard as a man. "When I got hired, I was the only female in a group of 17 men," she said. "Prior to my coming on staff, there hadn't been a female on staff for at least 10 years." And there wouldn't be another woman hired in anesthesia for 15 more years, she said. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.