If I wanted to disempower an entire generation of women in physical therapy, here's what I'd do

Julie Granger

Sep 15

8 min read

If I Wanted to Disempower an Entire Generation of Women in Physical Therapy

(who graduated PT school between 2000 and 2020)

Here's what I'd do 👇

At the risk of being cancelled by an entire generation of PT colleagues…

I think some of the things we were told would make us "good" and "empowered" PTs deserve a MUCH closer examination.

But before we get into it, I want to be crystal clear about where I'm standing.

I loved, and still love, my time practicing as a PT. I am grateful for every single moment (including the hard ones) I have been in the profession.

No part of me is writing this to convince you to leave the profession.

I'm also not here to convince you to stay and "just make it work and grin and bear it."

The latter is a trope I think we've all heard a lot.

The former is one I think we also hear a lot — go get a nonclinical job, pivot into some other profession entirely.

I'm not fully convinced you need to throw the baby out with the bathwater in every case.

Maybe you do? Maybe you don't.

Usually, from what I find from having walked alongside THOUSANDS of women in PT in this very spot, the first thing we often need is just permission to speak truth to the things that just don't sit well with us.

Maybe that's some of the things on this list. Maybe other parts of this list don't apply to you at all.

I'm not here to convince anyone to change their viewpoint, because I already know this is the viewpoint of countless people.

If you genuinely love your work and have never experienced any of this, I'm simply asking you to consider that there may be another experience that people have had that doesn't match yours.

You can be grateful for your work, love what you do, and still acknowledge that other people may not have the same experience as you.

You can also be grateful for your work, love what you do, and simply be doggone tired of it.

We can handle this nuance, y'all. I believe in us!

This one is for the woman who pledged allegiance to the unwritten rules of the physical therapy religion, did everything right, turned her own wound into medicine, and also…

Slid into my DMs saying, "omg thank you for putting words around things I've felt for 20 years."

Cried on a Zoom call with me when she realized the ride-or-dies from her last job stopped reaching out when she started her own practice.

Got told "you just don't want this job enough" when she took time to breastfeed.

So here's my list. Eleven of the things I'd tell a woman in PT if I actually wanted to disempower her.

#8 is the one I talk about with my therapist a lot.

1. You can work at the same level as a man

Fill the PT profession with 65–70% women. Build them into a system focused on male-friendly standards like productivity and climbing the career ladder.

Give them no framework for honoring their menstrual cycles, pregnancy and postpartum, breastfeeding, child and elder care responsibilities, or energy changes in peri/menopause.

…and call it "equality."

2. You can (and should) be, do, and have it all

Get the board certification. Build the wait list and the thriving business. Become an IG influencer, get published, and speak at every conference.

Just don't bother with an identity outside of your career.

…and call it "Boss Babe."

3. Be the Guru everyone puts on a pedestal

Teach and preach your own unique clinical approach. Model good self-care, then write a course about it.

Never disclose how much work any of it actually takes.

…and call it "Leadership."

4. You're a "Doctor" now, so you need to act like it

Attend a white coat ceremony. Recite an oath in a fancy robe at graduation. Complete a residency and a fellowship.

Then be barely able to cover your "doctoral" loan payment each month.

…and call it "serving at the highest level."

5. Anxiety and burnout are a YOU problem

Get up early to meditate. Fix your mindset. Exercise more. Set boundaries.

Do all of it to distract yourself from the systemic issues that perpetuate it.

…and call it "healthy work-life balance."

6. Build a one-stop shop and holistic PT practice

You also need to be the patient's trauma therapist, functional medicine provider, nutritionist, personal trainer, life coach, and astrologer.

…and call it "whole-person* centered."

Whole person* for everyone except you.

7. Always better yourself for your patients

Race to be the first to sign up for the "cannot miss" course with your PT bestie. The one your employer paid for and expects you to do an in-service on.

Then miss your kid's tournament, because you signed up and booked flights eight months before you got the soccer schedule.

…and call it "growth mindset."

8. Surround yourself with like-minded colleagues

Compete with other women for patients, referrals, and management positions. Give in to FOMO and go to the out-of-town conference you know will exhaust you, because you don't want your friends to learn more skills than you.

Fight with people in Facebook groups to have the last word and prove you're the most critical thinker.

…and call it "collaboration."

9. It's your duty to be an advocate

Mentor and teach students and interns. Lobby Congress and state legislators. Do lunch-and-learns in MD offices. Hate on other professions who share your scope (chiropractors, for example).

Do all of it for free, in whatever spare time you're not already spending catching up on notes.

…and call it "advancing the profession."

10. Pick your dream career at 25 and stay there

Sub-specialize immediately or risk being irrelevant.

Stay in jobs and career tracks you've outgrown, because you already put in so much time, money, and energy, you have a reputation, and nobody else can do it like you can.

…and call it "commitment to your patients."

11. Turn your own wound into medicine

Go into sports and ortho because you had an injury. Neuro because of your granny's stroke. Acute care because of your dad's cancer. Pelvic health after your birth trauma. Peds because your baby fell through the cracks.

Make sure everyone gets care for the trauma you've had… except you.

…and call it "giving back" and "inspiration."

If I wanted to disempower an entire generation of women PTs, I'd dress it up in white coats, robes, oaths, and morally ethical standards and rituals.

I'd commend you for sacrificing yourself in the name of service to something bigger than you.

I'd put you in a tribe of people who think, talk, and act just like you.

I'd make sure you pledge allegiance to the religion of physical therapy and sign invisible contracts of membership.

Contracts that silently dictate that anyone even daring to think outside the box should be deemed unprofessional, morally corrupt, disloyal, selfish, unethical… and therefore cancelled or sent to PT jail.

And as a card-carrying Good PT, you pledge this could NEVER be you.

I'd make sure that when your own voice whispers…

I don't think I want this anymore.

…you question yourself and your own voice. You feel like you're letting down the profession you spent an entire career trying to be Good for.

Then maybe you'll blame it on perimenopause, or on "just needing to take a course that gives you inspiration again."

I'd also make sure you're one of those very loyal, deeply sensitive, deeply attuned women.

When you picture leaving or changing your current PT career path, you think about the PEOPLE it will cost you.

The friends, colleagues, and mentors who know your coffee order and your nerdy obsession with cranial nerves. The people who speak the same weird little language you do.

The world tells you not to care what people think.

Yet it pains you to picture losing this.

Nobody tells you about the very specific anxiety and grief that comes when you shift your career against all you've been trained to do and believe as a Good PT.

(Well, I do. I'm telling you.)

I'd be willing to bet that's a huge reason you're staying put in something you've outgrown while saying…

I'm so good at this. I built it. It works. But is this even what I want anymore?

It really can hurt to stray from the path all your favorite people are on in physical therapy. It's supposed to hurt. They mean something to you.

Some people will surprise you and come along. Some won't.

That sucks. But it's okay.

And there are so many people you haven't even met yet, waiting with open arms in whatever is next for you.

You just have to be willing to open your eyes and heart so they can make themselves known.

I'm one of those PTs rooting relentlessly for you.

I'm a DPT x 17 years who now helps women PTs build careers they find deeply fulfilling, lives that aren't swallowed by those careers, AND find the people who will back them when they take the brave step into what's next.

And get this -- You can still be a GOOD PT and love and support and even STAY IN the profession without being obedient to the parts of it that require you to erase yourself, your desires, your creative spark, or your changing needs along the way.

IDK about you, but <checks notes> I can't find anywhere in my state practice act (the actual rules) that says it's empowering to skip my family reunion to attend the "can't miss" conference of the year.

And yet, we have a culture of Judgy McJudgertons who will cancel you if you color outside the lines of their impossible rules of "empowered PT."

This cult-like mentality gets joked about through tropes of khakis, polos, conference badges with 47 ribbons, and cutesy "another weekend, another course!" posts on IG.

But it's not a joke when questioning it can feel, on a deep level, like questioning your loyalty to the pack.

And to be VERY clear for anyone reading this email while clutching your clinical pearls (your rage-read still counts as an open, so tysm)…

None of the things on this list are disempowering on their own.

What's disempowering is the binary that adhering to ALL of them makes you GOOD, and anything else makes you Uncaring. Unethical. Disloyal. A Quitter.

Or my personal fave: Not Good Enough.

PLEASE teach, mentor, learn, go to conferences, advocate for better pay or broader scope, build a practice, or stay in PT 4eva if it tickles your pickle.

AND you're allowed to make a different choice.

Some people will support you. Some won't.

But some will still have your back. Literally. Your back hurts and they'll treat you.

What's good for you is good for the profession.

The whole point of empowerment is not to erase your needs, desires, and voice so other people can be comfortable.

Maybe being an empowered PT was never supposed to mean being fiercely loyal to the unwritten rules of the profession.

Maybe it was always about knowing what YOU want and need, and trusting yourself to be loyal to that.

You're allowed to speak truth to your experience.

It doesn't make you a bad person. It doesn't make you ungrateful or unkind.

In fact, sometimes the kindest thing we can do is simply tell the full truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.

And if you do feel that change is afoot in your work — whether it's shifting gears inside the profession, outside the profession, or into something else entirely — I'm here for you.

Rooting for you to choose what works for you.