Women in surgery: The social construction of gender in surgical practice

Despite comprising over half of Canadian medical graduates, women remain underrepresented within surgery. Strategies to address this gap have largely focused on increasing numbers or targeting individual women, overlooking subtle, systemic gender inequities that may deter women from the field.

67 ​h of participant observation with six surgeons and semi-structured interviews with six women surgeons were conducted at a Canadian academic hospital to explore how gendered processes shape surgical life. Data was analyzed iteratively and thematically.

Gender influenced women surgeons' lives across three levels: organizationally, their surgical status was questioned and undermined; individually, they navigated a double bind of being both a woman and a surgeon; and environmentally, their bodies conflicted with cultural and physical norms of surgical spaces.

This study suggests that gender inequities are deeply ingrained in surgical structures and practices, highlighting the need for systemic transformations to ensure women are fully included and valued within surgery.