Surgical practice | Sexism still operates

The proportion of women among surgeons has more than doubled for 30 years in Canada. Furthermore, But this area is still subject to sexist prejudices. Therefore, which undermine the career of surgeons, according to a new Montreal study.

“When I was studying medicine. Similarly, I felt that surgeons behaved differently from surgeons,” said Jillian Schneidman, who published his study in early July in theAmerican Journal of Surgery. Furthermore, “I did not feel the same difference in behavior in other specialties. However, the proportion of women in surgery is constantly increasing. Similarly, She devoted her mastery to medical anthropology on this subject.

The D^re Schneidman, who has just started working as a surgeon, has collected long testimonies from six surgeons. Meanwhile, Three problems have become apparent: instruments are designed for the larger hands of men. Meanwhile, women are referred to cases less likely to lead to surgeries and they must adopt the typical insurance of surgeons without looking aggressive.

“Often, we will refer to surgeons where we will have to spend more time talking with the patient, for example if it is not clear that surgery is indicated. Nevertheless, To change this, you have to redefine what a success in a surgeon career is. However, »»

Unfavorable biases

Surgeons who did not participate in the study confirm these observations. In addition, “Often. However, I spend time with a patient to explain the surgery that we are going to do, and in the end, he asks me who will operate me,” explains Stéphanie Leclerc, surgeon for three years at the CHU surgical practice | sexism still de Québec. “Or I go to see a patient with a trainee who looks much younger. the patient answers my question by addressing the trainee, calling him doctor. And no male colleague calls himself “my handsome” by nurses or attendants. I have colleagues and an extraordinary team, I am sure that it is not voluntary. »»

Recently. the D^re Leclerc heard a head of service in his forties explain to a resident that a surgeon is not “attractive” because they were possibly going on maternity leave. “I told the resident that she should make a complaint, but she did not want to have enemies,” she says.

The D^re Leclerc adds that his spouse, who is an urologist, also observes the same difficulties, because it is a highly male specialty.

Josée Gagnon, a surgeon for 30 years at the Quebec CHU, experienced the same type of behavior. “In the collective unconscious there is the idea that surgical practice | sexism still a surgeon is a man,” she said. And this brings a treatment slightly different from women surgeons, unconsciously. But there are so many other priorities that you never take care of this question of biases unfavorable to women. I was head of department and I never had complaints from girls who felt that I was treated unjustly. »»

Encourage women to choose this specialty could also have beneficial effects: according to a Canadian study published in 2024 in the British Journal of Surgerysurgeons have a major complications of 17 % lower than the average in their patients.

Surgical practice | sexism still

Too high tables

The D^res Leclerc and Gagnon confirm the problem of the instrument size. “And the operating tables are often too high, adds the D^re Leclerc. I am 5 ft 4 in and I have to get on a small bench. It is not normal. »»

Smaller instruments exist. but very often, representatives of companies that make them do not even think of offering them to hospitals, according to Nancy Baxter, a Toronto surgeon who published in 2020, in JAMA Surgery, A study showing that male doctors are more likely than women to refer their patients to surgeons rather than surgeons. “Oddly, representatives of surgical instruments and devices are often old athletes,” says the D^re Baxter. These big guys arrive at the hospital and discuss a lot of sport with the surgeons. This virile camaraderie excludes surgeons. It’s surreal. »»

The D^re Baxter also reports that she was often taken for a nurse if she visits a patient. “But at least I am taken for a caregiver. Black surgeons often get caught for concierges, ”she says. surgical practice | sexism still Now deputy director of a university hospital in Australia. she still believes that there is less discrimination against women in surgery in Canada than elsewhere in the world. “Even in Scandinavia, it’s worse than in Canada. »»