{"id":49194,"date":"2020-12-09T11:44:19","date_gmt":"2020-12-09T10:44:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/?p=49194"},"modified":"2020-12-15T15:15:12","modified_gmt":"2020-12-15T14:15:12","slug":"women-in-surgery-we-should-be-asking-how-to-make-the-specialty-somewhere-women-want-to-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/2020\/12\/09\/women-in-surgery-we-should-be-asking-how-to-make-the-specialty-somewhere-women-want-to-work\/","title":{"rendered":"Women in surgery: We should be asking how to make the specialty somewhere women want to work"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"standfirst\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">It is not enough to encourage women to enter surgery if the workplace then discriminates against them, write Roisin Finn and colleagues<\/span><\/p>\n<p><!--more--><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Women make up more than half of medical graduates and have done for decades, yet worldwide, surgery remains extraordinarily male dominated. Women are less likely to enter and complete surgical training (<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/jamanetwork.com\/journals\/jamasurgery\/fullarticle\/2593310\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">one US study<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> found a 25% vs 15% attrition prevalence), and their abilities are judged <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/scholar.harvard.edu\/files\/sarsons\/files\/sarsons_jmp_01.pdf\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">far more harshly by colleagues<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. Gender based discrimination is <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/2019\/01\/24\/agnes-arnold-forster-sexism-in-surgery-little-has-changed\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">widely experienced and goes vastly under-reported<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. Experiences of sexism have changed little since 1980 when the president of the Royal College of Surgeons questioned \u201c<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/2019\/01\/24\/agnes-arnold-forster-sexism-in-surgery-little-has-changed\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">whether surgery is particularly suitable for women<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">.\u201d <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/insights.ovid.com\/international-surgery-global-health\/ijsgh\/2018\/07\/000\/women-surgery-challenges-opportunities\/2\/02054256\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Studies have reported<\/span><\/a> that female surgeons earn 27% less than their male peers (in some specialties it\u2019s been estimated to be as high as 60%) and are less likely to be promoted.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Right from the beginning of medical school, we noticed that women were actively discouraged from pursuing a career in surgery from senior doctors because \u201cit just isn\u2019t for nice girls like you.\u201d During foundation training, one of us was told, \u201cThere are two types of female surgeons. One who shouldn\u2019t be a surgeon and the other who shouldn\u2019t be female. Which one are you?\u201d This is echoed by <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/journals.lww.com\/annalsofsurgery\/Abstract\/9000\/Barriers_to_Pursing_a_Career_in_Surgery__An.94856.aspx\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">a recent study of Harvard medical students<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, which found that women are more likely to report discouragement towards surgical careers based on their gender.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">A lot of commentators have focused on what can be done to encourage more women <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">into<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> the specialty, however we think that instead we should be asking what we can do to make the workplace a more equal, hospitable place where women would want to work. It is not enough to just encourage women to enter surgery if the workplace actively excludes or discriminates against them.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Firstly, we think that hospitals need to take a tougher stance on misogynistic attitudes and behaviour. Discrimination towards women in surgery comes from many directions in our experience, but is frequently ignored. We agree with <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nejm.org\/doi\/full\/10.1056\/NEJMp1915351\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Mello and colleagues<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, who proposed that sexual discrimination should be recognised as an important ethical issue, which doctors have a moral obligation to recognise and object to.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Throughout our training, we have noticed countless patients make inappropriate comments about female surgeon\u2019s appearances. It is intensely demeaning to reduce a professional woman to nothing more than her appearance, yet our objections to this have been brushed off as being \u201ctouchy\u201d and that the patient made the comment \u201cinnocently.\u201d If we make sexual discrimination an ethical issue, however, it would push sexism to the forefront, and empower staff to speak up when this happens.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Patients and colleagues who make inappropriate comments relating to a doctor\u2019s gender should be pulled up on it and given a formal warning. A zero tolerance policy needs to be upheld. In extreme cases where a doctor is sexually assaulted at work, the patient should be held criminally responsible in the same way they would be if they had assaulted someone outside the hospital.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">In the corporate world, many organisations have taken active steps to improve awareness about sexist language and behaviour towards women, and to encourage the reporting of harassment. In our experience, the healthcare sector <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nejm.org\/doi\/full\/10.1056\/NEJMsa1903759\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">languishes decades behind this<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and needs to follow suit. We\u2019ve had senior colleagues tell us that they also feel helpless to protect their colleagues and juniors from sexist behaviour. Too often, reports of gender based discrimination are ignored or inadequately investigated, and there appears to be little faith in the disciplinary systems in place.<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Internationally, there should be reviews into the processes by which hospitals are managing reports of sexual discrimination. This drive for change needs to come from the top and include senior hospital leaders, patient representatives, and the staff who bear the brunt of this behaviour. Hospitals need to not just give lip service to \u201czero tolerance\u201d and actively empower our senior surgeons and managers to deal with reports of discrimination in an appropriate fashion.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Secondly, the surgical workplace would be more appealing as a long term prospect if there was more flexibility within the career pathway. There\u2019s good evidence to suggest that women are put off becoming surgeons due to the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/bmjopen.bmj.com\/content\/bmjopen\/9\/1\/e024349.full.pdf\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">long and unsociable hours<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, rigid training structure, and <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/journals.lww.com\/annalsofsurgery\/Abstract\/9000\/Barriers_to_Pursing_a_Career_in_Surgery__An.94856.aspx\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">poor life-work balance<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. While in the UK, for example, there are opportunities to apply for less than full time training, it has been the experience of our colleagues that the rules governing this vary in how they\u2019re applied between various deaneries and hospitals. Of <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rcseng.ac.uk\/careers-in-surgery\/trainees\/foundation-and-core-trainees\/women-in-surgery\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">the 11% of UK consultant surgeons who are women, few are part time<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and the opportunities for a trainee to get appointed to a less than full time consultant position<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/bmjopen.bmj.com\/content\/bmjopen\/9\/1\/e024349.full.pdf\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> are very limited<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">More support for women who are pregnant and on maternity leave would also help. It\u2019s common for female colleagues to fear they\u2019ll be perceived as weak if they ask to amend any of their duties during pregnancy. We know of one surgeon who completed a minor operating list while in the early stages of labour. A culture of machismo still prevails within surgery, which needs to be kicked back into the last century. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Support for pregnant women should include flexible working patterns and conditions. Covid-19 has shown us how working remotely and virtual clinical activities can be integrated into clinical practice, and this could be used for the benefit of pregnant women. Hospitals should also have as standard a programme of support and enhanced supervision for women returning to work after maternity leave. This would ease the concerns women may have about feeling out of practice and help them refresh their clinical skills in a supportive environment.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Several organisations in <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rcseng.ac.uk\/careers-in-surgery\/trainees\/foundation-and-core-trainees\/women-in-surgery\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">the UK<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/mwsc.med.umich.edu\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">North America<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> have set up engagement programmes to counter the misconceptions around women surgeons, but dismantling the institutional barriers that deter women from working in surgery will require <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/28437214\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">broad organisational and cultural change<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/bmjopen.bmj.com\/content\/bmjopen\/9\/1\/e024349.full.pdf\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">senior buy-in<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">.<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Doctors and surgeons need to recognise that they have an ethical obligation to object to and speak up about sexual discrimination. Hospitals and training organisations need to actively change attitudes towards reports of discrimination and proactively deal with them. The inflexible organisational structure and working patterns in surgery need to be modernised. The surgical workforce has demonstrated its ability to change rapidly in order to continue services during the covid-19 pandemic. We should harness this appetite for change and use it to overhaul the current state of affairs for the benefit of the workforce, including the introduction of more flexible working patterns and a less rigid career pathway.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Our healthcare systems are under unprecedented strain and we cannot afford to shut out or neglect any part of our workforce. We need to strive for an inclusive, diverse workforce and provide equitable access to success for all if we want our healthcare systems to survive and thrive.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400\"><em><strong>Roisin Finn<\/strong> is a neurosurgical ST7 at Oxford University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, United Kingdom.<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400\"><em><strong>Mario Ganau<\/strong> is a consultant neurosurgeon and deputy training programme director for neurosurgery at Oxford University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, United Kingdom.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400\"><em><strong>Gianni Lorello<\/strong> is chief diversity officer and assistant professor at the Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine at the University of Toronto, Canada.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>Competing interests:<\/strong> None declared.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It is not enough to encourage women to enter surgery if the workplace then discriminates against them, write Roisin Finn and colleagues [&#8230;]<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"btn btn-secondary understrap-read-more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/2020\/12\/09\/women-in-surgery-we-should-be-asking-how-to-make-the-specialty-somewhere-women-want-to-work\/\">More&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":419,"featured_media":49195,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[223,165],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-49194","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-guest-bloggers","category-junior-doctors"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - 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