How Patriarchy Shapes Women’s Health & Illness | Dr. Shalini Mullick | The Literature Lounge

In this powerful episode of The Literature Lounge, Dr. Shalini Mullick — author of One More Chapter, pathologist, and mentor — explores the intersection of literature, medicine, feminism, and womanhood.

This isn’t just a conversation about books.

It’s about how stories are shaped in hospital corridors, within marriages, through motherhood, and inside the quiet resilience women carry home each day.

Dr. Shalini Mullick reflects on balancing multiple identities — doctor, writer, woman — and why they can never truly be separated. She shares how clinical objectivity meets emotional truth, and how lived medical experiences transform into deeply layered fiction.

At the heart of this episode lies a powerful question:
Who has written your life so far — and what would you write next?

Drawing from One More Chapter, she speaks about:
Women who endure without losing grace
Gender bias in healthcare and everyday life
The impact of patriarchy in medicine and religion
Why biology and gender shape access to treatment
The guilt women carry — and why fulfilment isn’t selfish
Reclaiming agency and authorship over your own story

The conversation also examines how medicine shaped her feminism, how writing deepened her empathy as a doctor, and why mythology and religion must be revisited through a woman’s lens.
Above all, this episode is about agency — the moment a woman realises that even if earlier chapters were written by others, the next one can still be hers.

If you’re interested in literature, women’s stories, feminism, gender inequality in healthcare, or meaningful long-form conversations, this episode will stay with you long after it ends.