She’s Just Not Going to Cut It: Women in Surgery

Holly Dobbing, Year 2

For decades, women have made up over half of the world’s medical students. However surgery still remains extremely male dominated (Singh et al., 2020). Women are less likely than men to enter and complete surgical training, and even fewer are seen in roles of leadership. This may be due to a plethora of reasons and may differ from hospital to hospital and doctor to doctor, but many studies have concluded that this issue lies not with encouraging women into the specialty, but in making the specialty a more equal, understanding place in which women would want to work.  

Medical careers as a whole were designed with only men in mind. In 900AD, the first medical school in Europe was founded to train solely men in the art of healing (Nelson, 2015). These training programmes didn’t consider or account for women because women couldn’t even attend university, so maternity leave and having time off to raise children were distant, far-fetched ideas. Because of this, surgical careers have little flexibility in the way of taking time out or working less than full-time. This also means that women are somewhat forced into lower paid career paths because male doctors are likely to have been practicing longer. 

Women are also deterred from surgical careers because they are significantly more likely to experience misogynistic attitudes and discrimination from patients and colleagues throughout their training and career (Singh et al., 2020). In fact, a study by Harvard medical students found that women are far more likely than men to be verbally discouraged towards surgical careers exclusively because of their gender (Giantini Larsen et al., 2019). This ingrained misogyny also breeds further problems. For example, women are judged more harshly than men when applying for surgical positions (Singh et al., 2020), and in an independent review of the gender pay gap in medicine, the DHSC (Department of Health and Social Care) found that currently in the UK, women doctors earn 18.9% less an hour than men (BMA, 2020). IT IS 2022! Not only are these statistics completely shocking and are likely to discourage women from advancing in a career that they would otherwise excel in, but they are absolutely, unquestionably, unequivocally, totally and utterly unacceptable. Women SHOULD NOT be limited in their career progression or earnings simply because they are women.

But why is it we allow medicine to continue like this? Is it the old, traditional white male doctors who turn a blind eye? Is it the fact that the majority of people who run the NHS are not even medically qualified? Is it just that we are so used to misogyny that we hardly even pay attention? I don’t know. But what I do know is that it NEEDS to change. It is absolutely imperative that hospitals take a tougher stance on misogynistic behaviour to address and tackle this issue head on. Sexism and gender discrimination should be taken incredibly seriously with a zero-tolerance policy to empower women to speak up if this happens. Plus, surgical training and careers should be more flexible with a better work-life balance and shorter, more accommodating hours to give women the freedom they need to live the life they desire alongside the specialty they are committed to. Women are a vital and necessary part of our NHS and should be treated with understanding, inclusivity and equality throughout their careers. 

Now I know these changes may seem completely unreasonable and frankly unrealistic given the state of the NHS, and you may be thinking ‘and what exactly is ranting about it on The Worsley Times going to do?’, but this is where change can start. We are tomorrow’s doctors and dentists and nurses, and soon we will have the platform to be able to call out and stand up for what is right. 

References

BMA 2020. BMA commentary on Mend the Gap: The Independent Review into Gender Pay Gaps in Medicine in England.

GIANTINI LARSEN, A. M., PORIES, S., PARANGI, S. & ROBERTSON, F. C. 2019. Barriers to Pursing a Career in Surgery: An Institutional Survey of Harvard Medical School Students. Annals of Surgery, Publish Ahead of Print.

NELSON, H. 2015. The History of Medicine and Public Health [Online]. Available: https://mrhnelson.wordpress.com/2015/03/02/medical-training-medieval-style/ [Accessed 11 April 2021].

SINGH, C., LOSETH, C. & SHOQIRAT, N. 2020. Women in surgery: a systematic review of 25 years. BMJ Leader, leader-2019-000199.