Top female surgeon: 'End old boys' club culture in operating theatres'

Jyoti Shah said surgery was a 'hostile environment' for women in a call to change the culture within the profession
Old boys' club: A leading female surgeon said surgery needed a culture change to end its hostile environment towards women
Jamie Bullen1 October 2015

One of Britain's leading female surgeons has compared operating theatres to "an old boys' club" in a plea to make them more friendly for women.

Jyoti Shah, a consultant urological surgeon at Burton Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, said a culture change was needed in theatres to end what she called a "hostile environment" for women.

Ms Shah told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "Surgery still remains very male dominated, and it does still appear as an old boys' club and you're very much an outsider as a woman.

"You're trying to break into their gang almost, and that culture is quite engrained in surgery."

Figures show just 11% of surgical consultants in England are female - about 800 in total.

Ms Shah added: "I know one woman who as she was operating, she leant over and the consultant whom she was operating with very gently brushed against her breast.

"More subtle forms are being referred to as 'the nurse', being in a meeting with men and being the only woman and you're asked to make the tea."

The first female president of the Royal College of Surgeons (RCS), Clare Marx, said there was a fine line between a joke and sexist abuse.

Ms Marx said: "We have to be very careful that there isn't a confusion between a manner of speaking and something that is rightly offensive."

In a 2013 survey, 68% of newly qualified UK female doctors believed surgery was not a career that welcomed women.

Additional reporting by the Press Association

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in