Navigating Surgical Societies as Minority Women: The Intersectionality of Race and Gender

Surgical societies continue to play a crucial role in promoting changes that increase diversity, equity, and inclusion within academic surgery. Recent work has begun to shed light on the limitations of the commonly utilized "one-sized fits all" approach to addressing challenges faced by minorities.

In this article, we explore the unique experiences of minority women at the intersectionality of race, ethnicity, cultural practices, sexual orientation, and gender. We then share key insights from a "Society of Asian Academic Surgeons (SAAS) Sips" event that we hosted on the topic.

Numerous factors synergistically amplify disparities faced by minority women in academic surgery. The Society of Asian Academic Surgeons Sips event provided a necessary and safe space to begin discussing challenges that arise at the intersectionality of belonging to multiple underrepresented groups, and such events need to be reproduced more regularly.

Future work that aims to understand factors that affect personal and professional experiences of minority women from a wide diversity of cultures, and address unique barriers within specific groups, are needed to create a more inclusive surgical culture.