Women Plastic Surgeons of Canada: Empowherment Through Education and Mentorship

Abstract

Gender disparity in plastic surgery in Canada is an important issue. The Women Plastic Surgeons of Canada (WPSC) group was created to highlight the interests and concerns of female members of the Canadian Society of Plastic Surgeons (CSPS). Women Plastic Surgeons of Canada seeks to teach and implement measures to overcome the internal and external factors contributing to “the plastic ceiling.” In addition, the WPSC group was created to raise awareness about the gender gap in our leadership and implement strategies to empower female surgeons to “lean in” and seek out leadership roles in plastic surgery. Education, mentorship, and networking among female CSPS members are first steps in empowering our female surgeons. All members of the CSPS are encouraged to learn about gender disparity in order to work together to address this issue.

For most of history, “Anonymous” was a woman.

—Virginia Woolf

The Women Plastic Surgeons of Canada (WPSC) group has been created to highlight the interests and concerns of female members of the Canadian Society of Plastic Surgeons (CSPS; Logo, Figure 1). The aim is to empower female CSPS members through education, mentorship, and networking opportunities. The group also seeks to address the unique challenges women plastic surgeons face as trainees and staff and generate strategies to overcome them.

Figure 1.

Women plastic surgeons of Canada logo.

Since the 1950s, the gender demographic in medicine has considerably changed. In 1961, women comprised only 7% of all practicing Canadian physicians. In 2000, this number rose to 28% and is now hovering at 41%.^1,2 Despite an overall increase in women in medicine, women continue to shy away from surgical specialties. Female surgeons account for only 10.1% in urology, 12.1% in orthopaedic surgery, 11.1% in neurosurgery, 22.6% in plastic surgery, and 26.3% in general surgery.² Women who choose not to pursue a surgical career quote a lack of female co-workers, lack of role models, sexual discrimination, and concerns over pregnancy and child care as influencing factors.³

Despite these concerns, the number of women in surgery, including plastic surgery, is increasing and will likely continue to rise as women dominate the medical school demographic.⁴ Currently, 20% (90/438) of CSPS members and 13.5% (22/163) of the Canadian Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery (CSAPS) members are female. These numbers are likely to double in the next 5 years as women make up 40.3% (62/154) of plastic surgery residents in Canada.

Emphasis on women in medicine and surgery is emerging as society deals with gender issues in various workforces. In medicine, two studies have examined the outcomes of patients treated by female physicians. In 2017, the Journal of American Medical Association Internal Medicine published a US-based study that found that elderly hospitalized patients treated by female physicians were less likely to die within 30 days or be readmitted within 30 days of discharge, compared to those treated by male physicians.⁵ Following suit, the British Medical Journal published a Canadian comparative study looking at surgical outcomes in patients in Ontario treated by male and female surgeons.⁶ Their findings indicated a 4% increase in 30-day survival in patients treated by female surgeons.⁶

Notwithstanding the positive attributes of female surgeons, there is concern as women are poorly represented in leadership positions, podium presentations, and on executive committees.^3,7 In 1999, Dr William Morain dubbed this paucity of female leadership in plastic surgery “the plastic ceiling.”³ In Canada, only 3 of the 13 plastic surgery residency program directors are women. Of the 70 past presidents of the CSPS, only 3 have been women. Similarly, the CSAPS has only had 2 female presidents in 43 years. Thus, women have increased their presence in plastic surgery but not yet reached their full potential.

The WPSC’s first aim is to address issues that contribute to gender disparity in the field of plastic surgery. There are both internal and external factors that discourage women from “leaning in” compared to their male counterparts. The internal issues include the ambition gap, confidence gap, as well as underdeveloped negotiation and leadership skills.³ An important external factor is the scarcity of female mentors.³ Women Plastic Surgeons of Canada is currently working on developing education programs to address these factors in order to offer mentoring opportunities and empower women members of CSPS. Developing meaningful and long-lasting professional relationships with like-minded individuals is of paramount importance as it allows women to learn from and encourage each other in tackling work–life balance, career advancement, pregnancy, and gender discrimination.^8,9

However, educating female surgeons is not enough; we must educate our entire society in order to address the factors contributing to gender inequality. These include differences in promotion, pay, academic advancement, and leadership roles, as well as lack of institutional support for pregnancy, child care, and flexibility in academic tracks. Such issues need to be addressed from the top, where emphasis on female representation must become a priority. In fact, the most challenging aspects of gender disparity lie in unconscious gender biases. A recent study examined how male and female physicians were introduced at internal medicine grand rounds and found that women introduced by men were less likely to be addressed by their professional title than were men introduced by men.¹⁰ This type of professional discomfiture must be brought to light in order to encourage a change in attitude toward female surgeons.

The WPSC’s second aim is to address issues unique to women in our field. The American Society for Plastic Surgeons has published multiple editorials in the last year highlighting the challenges related to their female members, including issues such as pregnancy, marriage, and work–life balance.^3,8,11–15 American women plastic surgeons were found to be almost 3 times as likely to be unmarried compared to men plastic surgeons.¹³ Women plastic surgeons were also more likely to marry later, less likely to find a partner with equal education level, more likely to delay having children or be childless.¹³ Finally, women plastic surgeons were less satisfied with their work–life balance.^14,15 These findings highlight the importance of providing female role models as well as strategies to help women achieve a balance between their sociobiological drive and career aspirations.

In sum, gender disparity in plastic surgery in Canada is an important issue. The WPSC group was created to raise awareness about the gender gap in our leadership and implement strategies to empower female surgeons to “lean in” and seek out leadership roles in plastic surgery. Education, mentorship, and networking among female CSPS members are first steps in empowering our female surgeons. In addition, WPSC seeks to teach and implement measures to overcome the internal and external factors contributing to “the plastic ceiling.” All members of the CSPS are encouraged to learn about gender disparity in order to work together to address this issue.