Gender discrimination in surgery: A cross-sectional study in a tertiary care hospital in Pakistan

Gender discrimination (GD) like in all workplaces has been a grievous part of the medical field from the beginning with the surgical side suffering the brunt of it. To determine the prevalence of gender bias and perceptions of gender disparities affecting the careers of surgeons in a tertiary care hospital in Pakistan and map out both the male and female perspectives on the means for experiencing such discrimination. A single-centered cross-sectional study was conducted at a tertiary care hospital in Pakistan from Dec 2021 to Feb 2022 using convenience sampling. The response rate was 32% in our survey. In our analysis, among those who responded in each specialty, 59% agreed to experiencing gender discrimination in General Surgery, 57% in Cardiothoracic Surgery, 54% in Ophthalmology, 30% in Otolaryngology, and 50% in Orthopedic surgery. A greater percentage of female surgeons ‘agreed’ to experiencing GD in comparison to male surgeons in their career (31.25% vs 27.08%). Additionally, our study also concluded that 10.42% of male and 9.38% of female doctors did not experience GD while training. Our findings highlight the discriminatory areas for each gender in surgery and conclude that we must view gender as a primary root factor that predetermines and shapes health systems and outcomes. Most of the problems created by discrimination for different age groups were career advancement, OR opportunities, leadership roles, the difference in mentorship, and a lack of respect in the team. •We determined the prevalence of gender bias in surgery.•Mapping out the means for experiencing such discrimination.•Highlighting the discriminatory areas for each gender in surgery.•Females experienced GD in comparison to males (31.25% vs 27.08%).