Women in neurosurgery: perspectives from a developing country; Turkey

Although at least half of medical students are women, neurosurgery is not often preferred by women, and the proportion of female neurosurgeons who can participate in the academic platform is very low. In this study, we aimed to show the role of female neurosurgeons in the Turkish Neurosurgical Society and to describe the number and the location of female neurosurgeons in Turkey. We examined the age, academic rank, years of work in the profession, membership rate in society subgroups, h-index parameters, and relationships of certificated female neurosurgeons registered in the Turkish Neurosurgical Society. We examined gender rate differences between society subgroups using chi-square tests. A P value < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. According to the year-end 2020 data of the Turkish Neurosurgery Society, 94 (5.5%) of the 1699 neurosurgery specialists registered in Turkey are women. There are currently 94 board-certified female neurosurgeons between the ages of 31 and 92 years; 10 are full professors (10.6%), 16 are associate professors (17%), 5 are assistant professors (5.3%), and 63 are neurosurgery specialist physicians (67%). Female neurosurgeons are present among six of the subfields categorized by the Turkish Neurosurgical Society: 7 in pediatric neurosurgery (11.47%); 8 in spinal and peripheral nerve surgery (2.4%); 3 in neurovascular surgery (2.02%); 7 in functional neurosurgery (5.8%); 11 in neuroanatomy (9.2%); and 23 in neurooncology (6.9%). The number of female neurosurgeons in Turkey continues to grow each year. To increase the proportion of women in this field, it is important to support female neurosurgeons and enable them to take on more tasks.