It Happened To Me: Retaliation

Dr. Hanna began her career as a doctor in 1980 in the Washington D.C. area. She started a three-year residency program for internal medicine at George Washington University Medical Center. During the summer of 1981, after her first year of residency, she began applying for a position in an emergency room with Alexandria Physicians Group, Ltd. (APG). Her applications were denied, while the group hired several male physicians. In the process of her applications, she received a letter from the president of APG acknowledging that the group had no female physicians and warned her that her career would probably not "be advanced over the long haul by feminism." In the spring of 1983 she filed suit against APG for sex discrimination.

While the suit was pending, she found full-time employment at Emergency Medical Associates (EMA). The president of APG contacted EMA essentially to warn them about her lawsuit. This conversation led to a July 14, 1983 board meeting at EMA where concern was raised over having a physician with a history of law suits against an employer. Two days after the meeting, she received notes containing critiques on charts of patients. She had never received any criticism before. Three weeks later, on August 5, she was fired.

At trial, the jury found in Dr. Hanna's favor for over $24,000 in compensatory and punitive damages. The trial judge abandoned the jury verdict, at which point Dr. Hanna appealed. In 1989, the appeals court found that the trial judge was incorrect for abandoning the jury verdict and held in favor of Dr. Hanna.