#ChooseToChallenge: Celebrating IGHI’s women and championing change
At the Institute of Global Health Innovation, we’re proud to have a community that includes a diverse range of women working in various disciplines.
Tag: International Women’s Day
Celebrating our women at IGHI
It’s Women at Imperial Week, an opportunity for us to celebrate some of the fantastic females who help keep our Institute brimming with brilliance.
To mark the occasion, in honour of International Women’s Day, we spoke with a handful of women from across IGHI’s Centres to learn more about what they do, what makes them tick, and the females who inspire them the most.
Women in Surgery Sticking Together
By Saniya Mediratta, President of the ICSM Surgical Society
It seems strange to me, that when women have shattered the proverbial glass ceiling in innumerable fields, the statistics of women in surgery are still so low. At an astonishing 11.1%, the only heartening news is that it was once as low as 3% in 1991.
Why isn’t the field of surgery evolving with the current shift in workplace demographics? Why aren’t women choosing to pursue the seemingly impossible journey that is surgical training?
Why are so few of us women, studying medicine, not drawn to a career that inspires such awe, pride and prestige in the single word, “surgeon?” Is it because of distorted perceptions that see this plum role more suited to agentic males that are perceived to be assertive, able, task-orientated and competitive, as opposed to women that are often thought of as only nurturing, sensitive and communal?
Speaking to young female medics and doctors, many speak of concerns about the gruelling and intensive training, the impossibility of being able to maintain a work-life balance, or conversations about deskilling if time is taken out for child care, and the one that riles me most, the gender inequity and pay gap that still exists in the surgical field. (more…)