Sexism in surgery: Females being put off becoming surgeons by men - Telegraph
▻http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/health/11903476/Sexism-in-surgery-Females-being-put-off-becoming-surgeons-by-men.html
A leading female surgeon is leading a crusade against sexist surgeons who ask females to make cups of tea and refer to them as nurses.
Jyoti Shah, a consultant urological surgeon at Burton Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, says her colleagues face sexism everyday in operating theatres by their male counterparts.
She says there is a “gang culture” and sexism in operating theatres which puts women off becoming surgeons and is calling for a “cultural change”.
In a blog she has revealed that colleagues have been referred to as “young girls”, “nurses” and told not to have more babies and describes operating theatres as a “hostile environment for women”.
It comes as the latest figures for the number of female surgical consultants in England represent just 11 per cent of the total.
The top six remarks encountered by her female colleagues are:
1• Being mistaken for a nurse or secretary: Examples include “say thank you to the nurse”.
2• Male collegaues asking them to make tea for the team - “I used to be excused before the end of the ward round to be sent to make the tea and toast,” said one junior doctor.
3• Patronising remarks such as “women aren’t creative enough to be in medicine”, “you must be very clever” and being referred to as the “young girl”.
4• Being asked about your husband. One doctor was asked “what does your husband do? Apart from you?”.
5• Being accused of menstruating if you speak firmly. “Is it the time of the month?”
6• Given advice not to have children or about having time off during maternity leave. “You would be well advised to have no more babies,” one doctor was told.
