Surgery: A Speciality of male or Female Doctors?

Surgery is a branch of medicine that involves a broad range of invasive medical treatments which are performed by opening or cutting through skin for therapeutic removal or repair of an internal organ, a body part, a tissue or an abnormal growth, including removal of abnormal growths for cosmetic, non-medical purposes.

In most hospitals, it can be observed that this department is mostly dominated by men. In a medical employment setting, surgeons are highly trained doctors who are often feared and sometimes despised because of their seeming obsession to keep their department exclusively for males. These male surgeons also usually have their own language that is sometimes viewed as gross or vulgar by others.

However, due to the growing culture of women empowerment, some female doctors have tried to break into this male dominated branch of medicine. But, as expected, women doctors who try to seek equality in a male-dominated field often receive cold shoulders and inappropriate treatment from senior male surgeons. These women are even accused of inviting sexual aggression from the males and are sometimes not allowed to assist during major operations just because they are "women". Women surgeons who cannot stand this environment may eventually quit and proceed to another field of medicine where men are less seen as a threat. For the stronger breed of these women doctors, masculine dominance is not enough to deter them from pursuing a career in surgery.

For the women population in the field of surgery, such display of arrogance and chauvinism by men has been understood to be a reflection of society's basic traditions of male dominance. Women surgeons suffer more difficulties than men, not just because they are women, but due to more complicated and personal reasons.

Although women surgeons are usually surrounded by males, they have a relatively quieter social life as men outside of medicine do not understand the demands of a doctor's life, especially that of a female surgeon. On the other hand, when male surgeons get interested in starting a family, they usually prefer more traditional women who can run the house and live up to the demands of being a surgeon's wife.

On the other hand, if female surgeons ever get married and have kids, they gravitate towards less demanding and less stressful fields of surgery, such as rehabilitative or cosmetic surgery. Such fields allow a more flexible schedule for surgeons as most cases are performed on a scheduled basis during weekdays.