Year: 2025
Type: conference-abstract
Abstract: Background:Storms on social media like the #ILookLikeASurgeon movement that led to more than 128 million impressions across the globe as well as the #NYerORCoverChallenge have drawn attention to the lack of visibility of women in a profession traditionally dominated by men.In literature, this phenomenon is defined as the gender career gap, which is evident not only in pediatric surgery in general, but also in academic pediatric surgery.Women continue to be underrepresented in leadership positions in pediatric surgery.These phenomenons are summarized by two main metaphors: the "glass ceiling effect" and the "leaky pipeline phenomenon".In view of an impending shortage of surgeons in the US and in Europe, "fixing the leaky pipeline" in pediatric surgery is not only necessary for individual satisfaction, but is primarily about ensuring that qualified staff are retained.We therefore asked ourselves where exactly the leaks in the pipeline are causing us to lose male and female pediatric surgeons and, above all, how they can be fixed to ensure the highest possible quality of care in our profession in the future. Materials and methods:We created a web-based online questionnaire through ScoSci survey, which comprised a maximum of 21 questions, with some questions being offered only depending on previous answers.The survey was distributed worldwide via email through the pediatric surgery associations as well as advertised on LinkedIn.This distribution led to 185 respondents participating in the survey (n = 185).Data analysis was performed through Microsoft Excel and Stata for the multiple-choice and short-text responses (that could be coded to integer data) and NVivo for open-ended questions. Results:1) Study Population 35% of the respondents were male and 75% female pediatric surgeons.The median age for male respondents was 43 years, while for female respondents, it was 36 years.The mean age of male participants was 46 years, compared to 37 years for female participants.The respondents hailed from diverse geographic regions: North America (6%), Africa (11%), Europe (68%), Latin America (3%) and Asia (11%).2) Gender-Based Career Differences Our study found that 74% of female respondents believed that gender impacts career opportunities, compared to only 32% of male respondents.Additionally, 77% of female surgeons felt disadvantaged by their gender, while 57% of male respondents perceived no difference, and 29% believed they benefited.These perceptions underscore a significant gender divide in the experience of career advancement, where women are more acutely aware of the barriers they face. 3) Sexual Discrimination and HarrasmentAlthough inequality in career chances and sexual discrimination and harassment are not the same and should not be mixed up, sexual discrimination and harassment are still a symptom for gender inequality and can be a reason for symptoms of burnout and suicidal thoughts.Being provided specific examples, a striking 93% of female respondents reported experiencing at least one instance of sexual discrimination, and 42% reported experiencing sexual harassment.In contrast, 50% of male respondents reported no experience of sexual discrimination, and 26% reported an experience of sexual harassment.
Source: Innovative Surgical Sciences
Language: English
Subfield: Gender Studies
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $1,130
OpenAlex ID: W4408545423