{"id":89399,"date":"2014-02-14T09:52:11","date_gmt":"2014-02-14T14:52:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=89399"},"modified":"2014-02-14T10:37:45","modified_gmt":"2014-02-14T15:37:45","slug":"fostering-more-women-surgeons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2014\/02\/fostering-more-women-surgeons\/","title":{"rendered":"Fostering More Women Surgeons"},"content":{"rendered":"

The percentage of U.S. physicians who are women grew from 12 percent in 1980 to 30 percent in 2009, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Yet women continue to be underrepresented in the field of surgery. American Medical Association statistics show women currently constitute only 19 percent of all surgeons. A group of students at the UConn School of Medicine have come together to try to close that gap. The Women in Surgery Interest Group (WISIG), now in its third year, is working to raise awareness among all students\u2014women and men\u2014about careers in surgery and especially to help break down the barriers that have traditionally discouraged women from becoming surgeons.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Dr. Linda Barry<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The idea for the group originated with UConn Health surgeon Dr. Linda Barry<\/a>. She didn\u2019t need the statistics; she had seen firsthand the imbalance between men and women in the specialty. \u201cI was the only woman in my medical school class of 13 who went into general surgery,\u201d Barry says. \u201cAnd as a resident, I was the only woman in my year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Years later, she was concerned that she was the only woman faculty member in UConn\u2019s Department of Surgery<\/a>. So Barry began talking with interested students about forming a formal interest group. In early 2011, she and a group of students traveled to the University of South Florida to attend the National Women in Surgery Career Symposium, an annual event Barry had co-founded. The experience proved inspiring.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe met amazing women surgeons, and heard about life and balance and being women in surgery,\u201d says Olayemi Ajayi, then a first-year student. \u201cIt opened up our eyes and showed us it was possible and gave us something to work toward.\u201d<\/p>\n

Soon, the Women in Surgery Interest Group was born, complete with a mission statement and a set of guiding principles. The group aims to encourage student research activities; recruit students to pursue surgery; educate each other, colleagues and the community; encourage mentoring and networking; and give students exposure to surgery as a profession.<\/p>\n

Activities organized<\/b><\/p>\n

The group has held a number of programs. This past fall, the group invited women surgeons from surrounding hospitals to a gathering in the Health Center\u2019s Keller lobby. More than a dozen area surgeons attended and spent the evening circulating among the audience, which included about 50 UConn School of Medicine students. In October, the group held a \u201clunch and learn\u201d with UConn Health\u2019s Chief of General Surgery Dr. Brian Shames<\/a> focusing on how students can prepare themselves to be strong candidates for surgical residency programs.<\/p>\n

Under the leadership of third-year students Angela Yuan and Stephanie Davis, the group is planning additional events, including a workshop on suturing techniques. Why learn suturing? \u201cWhen you get into clinical rotations in your third or fourth year, you can do much more in the E.D. or the O.R. if you have those skills,\u201d says Ajayi. She says students will get much more out of their surgical rotations and be \u201can asset to their team\u201d if they\u2019re already proficient in suturing skills.<\/p>\n

Dispelling myths<\/b><\/p>\n

A number of factors have contributed to women\u2019s underrepresentation in surgical fields, but times are changing.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s been the perception that it\u2019s difficult to have a family, it\u2019s very hard work for very long hours and it\u2019s not a supportive environment for women,\u201d Barry says. \u201cThat may have been true in the past but those things are quickly eroding.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Radhika<\/a>
Radhika Nakrani, Yemi Ajayi, Joanne Cyganowski, Daniella Vega and Abimbola Sunmonu at the networking dinner at the second annual National Women in Surgery Career Symposium. (Olayemi Ajayi for UConn Health Center)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

One of the WISIG\u2019s aims is to give medical students the opportunity to meet women surgeons who have both careers and fulfilling lives outside of their work. Barry notes that, unless students meet and talk with such women, they may not see beyond the stereotypes to the reality.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019d love to bust all the myths about the surgical field,\u201d Ajayi says. \u201cIt\u2019s an amazing field. The women surgeons we\u2019ve met have been extremely happy. We can do as much as men and still do the things we want to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Barry notes that women are more likely to specialize in obstetrics and gynecology than in surgery, but that they may be basing their choices on misconceptions. Surgery, she says, is as manageable as any other field.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would argue that delivering babies at 5 a.m., with all the possible complications that can occur, isn\u2019t easy, but women do it,\u201d she notes.<\/p>\n

The message Ajayi says she wants to send to other women is, \u201cIf you love surgery, go for it. You\u2019ll make everything else work.\u201d<\/p>\n

The appeal of surgery<\/b><\/p>\n

Christine Castater is a fourth-year student who is a core member of the WISIG. She\u2019s something of a nontraditional student, having started medical school at age 35. She says she had several preconceived ideas about surgery and surgeons, so she hadn\u2019t considered the field. It wasn\u2019t until she did her surgical rotation in her third year that she realized surgery was right for her.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m an artist. I like working with my hands, and I like to see tangible results from the things I do,\u201d Castater says. \u201cI felt that surgery was a better fit for me because I\u2019d be able to do things to actually fix people instead of just managing patients\u2019 diseases over time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Once she decided on surgery, she sought out Dr. Barry for advice and became active with the WISIG, so she could help younger students.<\/p>\n

\u201cLooking back, I think if I\u2019d had exposure to real information about surgery or if I\u2019d had women mentors in surgery, it might have been on my radar screen sooner than my third year,\u201d Castater says.<\/p>\n

Olayemi Ajayi\u2019s interest in surgery began when, as an undergraduate at UMass Boston, she worked one summer at a missionary hospital in Nigeria. When she came to UConn, she was already planning to specialize in surgery, so she was eager to help get the WISIG up and running.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love being hands-on,\u201d Ajayi says. \u201cI love to physically do something to help patients. I want them to take care of themselves, but when they have injuries or diseases, as a surgeon you can intervene and do something about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Creating leaders<\/b><\/p>\n

Women also lag men when it comes to holding leadership positions in academic programs. According to the Association of Women Surgeons, only six Departments of Surgery have female chairs, and women account for only 8 percent of full professors of surgery. One of the WISIG\u2019s aims is to prepare women surgeons to move into these leadership positions.\u00a0 This is especially important in order to make careers in surgery more compatible with the balanced lives women want to lead, says Barry.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot every woman wants to have a child, but you do want a life outside of the O.R.,\u201d she says. \u201cIf the people who make the decisions are all our male colleagues, if [women leaders are] not at the table when they\u2019re talking about policies regarding maternity leave or compensation,\u201d she says, the obstacles that have discouraged women from entering the profession may remain. She\u2019s quick to point out that a more balanced approach would also benefit men, who today increasingly want to spend more time with their families.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, Barry is encouraging students to take the lead in the interest group. She would like to see it grow to include a mentoring program that would begin with pre-med students, with an eye to creating a pipeline of surgeons.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are so many possibilities,\u201d Barry says of the interest group. \u201cIt\u2019s still in its infancy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

Follow\u00a0the UConn Health Center<\/a> on\u00a0Facebook<\/a>,\u00a0Twitter<\/a> and\u00a0YouTube<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A student group is raising awareness and dispelling myths to generate interest in surgery\u2014especially among female medical students. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":89450,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[179,1],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[45],"class_list":["post-89399","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uconn-health","category-uncategorized"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-10 16:40:18","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89399","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89399"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89399\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":89457,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89399\/revisions\/89457"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/89450"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89399"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89399"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89399"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=89399"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=89399"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}