One of the leading female surgeons in Britain has urged her colleagues to enact a cultural change in order for women doctors to not feel uncomfortable in doing their medical duties.

Urological surgeon Dr. Jyoti Shah, a consultant for the Burton hospitals NHS foundation trust, said that operating theaters often become hostile environments for women because of a culture that espouses an old boys' club notion among surgeons.

During a recent interview, Shah pointed out that surgery is still very much dominated by male doctors, which tends to leave female surgeons to feel like an outsider.

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

Some of the examples Shah provided during the interview include male surgeons referring to female surgeons as "nurses" as well as asking them to make tea for their male counterparts. She also cited an instance wherein a male consultant purposely brushed against the breasts of a female surgeon during a medical operation.

Shah said that women are resilient individuals, and that they are facing a sexist behavior that is culturally engrained among their male colleagues. She said that discrimination against women has existed in the medical profession for a very long time and it is about time that something is done to address it.

Shah asserted that their duty is to save the lives of patients and recruit talented individuals regardless of their gender. She said that they owe it to their patients to foster a working environment that is appealing to everyone involved.

There are approximately 800 women surgical consultants in England, which represents only 11 percent of the total in the entire United Kingdom. This number has been steadily increasing year after year.

Clare Marx, the first female president of the Royal College of Surgeons (RCS), recognized that there was an inequality between male and female surgeons but said that the culture in the operating theater has already started to change. She also said that more and more women are entering the medical profession.

Marx, who has over 20 years' worth of experience as an orthopedic surgeon, emphasized that there is fine line between what can be considered as joke and what is already an act of sexist abuse.

She said that while they cannot force their fellow surgeons to change their culture, what they can do is to promote change within their ranks by showing others how they can prevent sexist behavior. Simply laying down rules does not work, according to Marx.

The Royal College of Surgeons said that some women who wish to have children sometimes delay becoming surgeons because it takes around eight years to finish medical school.

Photo: Jeff Kubina | Flickr