Abstract
the attraction of women by Surgery has always existed. Although Surgery has been considered a specialty for men, several women chose it, despite gender bias issues that have persisted over many years. Several obstacles have impacted the practice of women surgeons, leading them to abandon the profession, while others, perhaps bearers of a stronger spirit, managed to overcome them, and won. to assess the rates of perception of harassment against female surgeons as a cause of difficulty and negative feelings related to the specialty. we conducted a quantitative and qualitative (personal accounts) research through a questionnaire via Google Forms® sent to all women surgeons registered in the Brazilian College of Surgeons and in a WhatsApp women surgeons' groups. The qualitative analysis was made with the Wordle® app. from 821 questionnaires sent, we obtained 232 responses (28.2%). Harassment perception during training was 49.1% (n=114). From the women surgeons who perceived harassment, 56.1% reported having undergone different training than expected, with statistical significance (p<0.001). The question of having been treated differently due to being a woman also had an impact on harassment perception (77.2% harassed vs 47.5%; p<0.001). Physical (42.1% vs 6.8%) and emotional (92.1% vs 39.8%) threats were also different between groups. women surgeons still report great harassment perception, both moral and sexual, which impacts their feelings about the specialty.
Highlights
Women have participated in Medicine since ancient times
The aim of this study was to assess the rates of harassment perception among women surgeons and how this could influence their training and feelings about the profession throughout their career. This is a cross-sectional study carried out by a semi-structured questionnaire (Appendix 1) built on Google Forms®. We sent it to all female surgeons registered in the Brazilian College of Surgeons and to those belonging to the “Women in Surgery” WhatsApp group
At the end of the questionnaire, there was the possibility of inserting comments on what to say to a woman intern who is thinking about pursuing General Surgery as a specialty
Summary
Women have participated in Medicine since ancient times. The attraction to Surgery has always existed. The most notorious case is perhaps that of Margareth Ann Bulky, known as James Barry, the leading surgeon in the British Army for 40 years. Bulky transformed her appearance into a male and earned a medical degree from the Edinburgh University School of Medicine. She lived her entire public and private life as a man. She was recognized as having “great surgical skill, aggressive manners, and perfect aim”. Such knowledge caused violent impact, but the scandal was hushed up and she was buried as she lived: James Barry[1,2]
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