Jen Jen Yeh, M.D., associate professor of surgery at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine, will kickoff the inaugural Women in Surgery event.On Tuesday, April 26, the Women in Surgery Program in the UAB Department of Surgery will present its inaugural event, a full-day series of workshops and seminars targeted toward women surgeons, as well as surgery residents and female medical students interested in pursuing surgical disciplines. Addressing a wide range of topics, including contract negotiation, career development and mechanisms for success in both academic medicine and private practice, the program is intended to provide its attendees with crucial insight and networking opportunities. Jen Jen Yeh, M.D., associate professor of surgery at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine, will launch the day’s events at 7 a.m. with a lecture titled, “Serendipity, Integration, and Synergy.” Her lecture will be followed by a Q&A for residents and medical students. Panel discussions—one targeted at women interested in a career in academic medicine, the other focused on helping medical students understand the realities of a residency in surgery—offer interactive opportunities for attendees. Other speakers include: Christy Lemak, Ph.D., professor and chair of the UAB Department of Health Services Administration; Lauren C. DeMoss, of Maynard, Cooper & Gale, PC; Mimi Smith, M.D., a surgeon at Birmingham Surgical, and Tracy James, a fashion consultant and wardrobe stylist. Events will conclude at 4 p.m. The Women in Surgery program is free and open to all women faculty, residents and medical students. Please register here.
The Women in Surgery group, which is led by Catherine C. Parker, M.D., and Lauren Caldwell Tanner, M.D., has been in existence for several years, serving as an informal gathering for the female residents and faculty within the general surgery department.
“When Dr. Herb Chen became our new chair, he was very eager to create a more formal organization. He charged Catherine Parker and myself with the task, which we eagerly accepted,” Tanner said. She notes that the goal of the program is “to unite females in surgery from different surgical disciplines at various levels of training/practice and create an interactive and enjoyable day of discussion in order to promote successful practice and lifestyle models for females in surgery.”
This facilitation of an interactive environment among female surgeons at different career levels takes on an added importance when considered in light of the low number of women pursuing surgery as a medical specialty. Women currently comprise only 19 percent of all surgeons, according to the American Medical Association.
The underrepresentation of women in surgical fields persists for a number of reasons, even as women currently enter medical school at the same rate as men. According to the Bulletin of the American College of Surgeons, the gender discrepancy in surgery is multi-factorial; some is attributable to unconscious bias, some to a paucity of female role models and some to a perception on the part of prospective female surgeons that there is an inability to achieve a work-life balance. The UAB Women in Surgery Group is laboring to alter the perceptions – and the realities – in all of these areas. Although the faculty ratio of men to women in the UAB Department of Surgery reflects national imbalances, it is moving in the right direction, as evidenced by its hire of three new female faculty members this academic year.
“Surgery has historically been a male dominated field,” Tanner said. “The number of women in surgery continues to grow, gaining strength in numbers and creating a vast support network. Finding a balance between a successful surgical career and home/family life is not only possible, but is a common experience.”