awareness
Paternity Leave’s Incision on Gender Disparities in Academic Surgery
Title: Paternity Leave's Incision on Gender Disparities in Academic SurgeryAuthors: Mayte Bryce-Alberti1,2, Rohini Dutta1,3Author’s Affiliations: Program in Global Surgery and Social Change, Harvard Medical School; Boston, MA, USA Facultad de Medicina, Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia, Lima, Peru Mary Horigan Connors Center for Women’s Health and Gender Biology, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, MA, USA Keywords: Gender Equity, Work-Life Balance, SurgeryCorresponding Author Contact Information: Mayte Bryce-Alberti. Program of Global Surgery and Social Change, Harvard Medical School, 641 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA, 02115. Email: [email protected]. Academic surgery demands a significant amount of training and time commitment, with many surgeons pursuing postgraduate degrees and protected research time, in addition to completing medical school and surgical residency. The gender pay gap and disparities in surgery training can be attributed in part to the disproportionate burden of childcare responsibilities placed on women, which coincides with their fertile years and presents significant challenges for them in...
Even Shame Has Its Limits
Christina Georgeades, MD “You mean every day should be shame day.” I was walking behind two of my co-residents the last month of my intern year when I heard the hurtful comment. It was Pride month, and in the professional world, I was a closeted gay resident. One of them had seen a Pride poster on the wall of the hospital hallway, and it had been heartwarming to hear her genuinely say, “Every day should be Pride Day.” But then my other co-resident responded to her with their derisive remark, the words quickly overriding her uplifting one. My heart sunk upon hearing it. Shame is something that those in the LGBTQIA+ community are uniquely familiar with, and it’s something most of us spend our lives overcoming to some degree. The words, therefore, cut deeply, especially considering I still battled with my own feelings of shame at that time. It hurt,...
“With Liberty and Justice for All”
By Alexis Moren MD,MPH,FACS The irony isn’t lost on any minority group as many of us recited the Pledge of Allegiance in elementary school: "I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all." Originally written in 1892 by socialist Francis Bellamey, additions such as “the United States of America”, and “one nation under God '' were added throughout the years. Written to unite the nation during the unrest of the Civil War, it's almost comical to think that citizens of the United States felt the country, once the war was over, could truly be equal and undivided. Thousands, if not millions recite this Pledge without giving it an ounce of consideration - to this day America remains divided, subjugated, and full of inequity. Each June, we celebrate a...
From Sewing Circles to Mentorship Triangles
By: Morgan Hopp, Anjna Kalya and Lily Foster During the summer between my sophomore and junior years of college, I completed an internship with a private practice plastic surgeon. I learned about surgery, operating rooms, staff interactions, and the inner workings of a private practice. More importantly, I solidified my understanding of mentorship. The experienced and compassionate office manager’s circuitous life provided many memorable conversations about relationships, especially with a mentor. She believed that a woman's strength and ensuing success was instilled from the support of other women in their lives. As she pointed out, prior generations had sewing circles that provided three types of women to support the next generation’s values and future: an older woman to give her wisdom and perspective, a woman her own age to give her belonging in the current stage of life, and a younger woman to observe her own growth and contributions to...
Straight People Problems
By Dr. Elinore Kaufman “Don’t worry, I still wear make-up every day.” A surgical resident was assigned to talk to our group of medical students about being a woman in surgery—the first of many such talks and events I have attended, and this was her opening line. I think I know what she was trying to get at. I think she was trying to say—you can be a surgeon, and still be yourself. You can be a surgeon, and still be a woman. To me, it sounded like something else. It sounded a bit more like—makeup is what makes someone a woman– like not having any on would be a sacrifice or a failure. Like you can be a woman and a surgeon, just so long as you are able to uphold the expectations of conventional femininity. When I started medical school in 2007, I had been out as queer...
The Association of Women Surgeons National Medical Student Committee
By Charlotte Smith, Gopika SenthilKumar, Paulina Gutkin Fostering a community intended to elevate women medical students is vital not only for increasing representation within surgery, but also building and strengthening professional and interpersonal connections among the future generation of surgeons. The AWS National Medical Student Committee (NMSC) is a collaborative of 27 medical students from across the United States and five international regions. We are incredibly excited to introduce the 23’-24’ NMSC members. The committee plans and coordinates national and local initiatives designed to engage medical students with the parent AWS organization and its values: engage, empower, and excel. Our main projects can be divided into the following categories: Research and Resource Development We use our strength as a diverse committee to brainstorm and execute research projects related to the main mission of AWS. In 2022, we published our paper “Comparison of Male and Female Surgeons' Experiences With Gender Across...
The Identities We Choose
By: Heather Wachtel, MD Growing up in Vermont, I had one person who looked like me – my sister. The children of a first generation Cantonese immigrant and a second generation Russian Jew, we loved the freedom of the rural countryside which our artist parents had embraced. However, when we returned to New York to visit our extended family, we alternated between eating dim sum with chopsticks in crowded restaurants on Mott Street, and celebrating the Passover Sedar on Long Island. As a result, we could protest that we were too full to eat any more in English, Yiddish, and Cantonese! Although I treasure my diverse heritage and the warm, loving acceptance of both sides of my family, to be mixed race is also to feel as though you never fully belong. As with many mixed race children raised between cultures, I learned instinctive code-switching from an early age. Code-switching...
THE MATCH EQUATION: AN IMG’S PERSPECTIVE
by: Anjani H Turaga, IMG The day starts at 5 am on an unusually cold morning in Los Angeles, where we see our protagonist, an IMG (International medical graduate) brushing her teeth furiously, trying her hardest to pay attention to the video lectures playing in the background, all while checking her clock to make sure she has enough time to reach the hospital before her preceptor. The physical exhaustion that comes with having only a few hours of sleep is overwhelming, yet she remains focused on her goal: matching into a residency program in the United States. While at first glance, the scene above seems overwhelming, it is a reality that every medical student, irrespective of their location, experiences in the year leading up to the Match. Our protagonist's journey is made more complicated, however, with her decision to to pursue a surgical residency program as an IMG. The uphill...
Finding Myself: A Korean-American Adoptee’s Reflections on Identity, Loss, and Purpose
By: Elizabeth Lilley, MD, MPH Many people are surprised to learn that I am both a surgeon and a palliative care doctor. Although the number of surgeons pursuing fellowship training in palliative care continues to grow, it remains a rare combination, with fewer than 100 American physicians carrying dual board certification in surgery and palliative medicine. For me, this dual professional identity is rooted in my heritage as a Korean-American adoptee. I left a foster home in Korea – the country of my birth – when I was three months old to join my new family in America. Growing up, my dual identity as a Korean daughter to white American parents felt natural and right, and also led to some confusion. As a young girl, I once used modeling clay to sculpt myself a Caucasian nose so I could look more like my mother. On the other hand, when I...
A Weightlifters Guide to Fitness during Medical Education
By Sophie Hockran Two years into medical school, and I have learned a lot, as expected. Many who have come before me know the feeling of learning so much information that your brain may explode. Being the first physician in my family, I was truly not prepared for this amount of information. I thought I was prepared, but it is hard to know before doing it. I think I need to make it clear that I am not just talking about the information from lectures, labs, and clinics. It is the hidden curriculum. Moving away from home, handling interpersonal relationships, finances, research, leadership, volunteering–the many arms of being a medical student and surgical hopeful, all create a unique set of challenges. The most important thing that I have learned is to hold onto the things that bring me joy. Coming from a collegiate track and field career, I have leaned...
