Surgery reduces its gender gap: from less than 10% of women to 60% in seven years

Women have been making their way into the world of surgery, where their presence a few years ago was almost anecdotal.

Elena Martinrecently elected president of the Spanish Association of Surgeons, and Rachel Sanchezhead of the general and digestive surgery service at the Álvaro Cunqueiro Hospital in Vigo, told laSexta how this gap has been reduced in recent years.

“In 2015 there was 20% of women surgeons. This has increased dramatically: women already occupy 60-65% of cases as female surgeons”, explains Elena. Both she and Raquel Sánchez have seen how women, little by little, have been gaining more presence in their specialty.

“Partly it has been because the change in work style, moving more to teamwork, has facilitated the Conciliation of work and family life“, explains Sánchez. Their role has become essential as specialists in advanced surgical techniques.

Even these technical advances, they tell us, have been adapted to them, as Martín tells us: “We have seen how stapling instruments and instruments for laparoscopic surgery already exist. adapted sizes to the smallest hands of women”.

In recent years, there has also been a greater presence in a key sector of medicine: clinical pharmacology. However, they assure that there is still a long way to go.