Open fractures, wounds, tumors or malformations: the female surgeon is a genius repairer, who uses her hands and surgical tools to make incisions and sutures to treat organs, diseases or deformities.

Undisputed chief of the operating room, she practices this profession to cure patients and save lives. Depending on her area of specialization, she repairs trauma, treats infections, inserts prostheses or performs organ transplants.

Despite all these feats, several stereotypes still exist:

1. Mission impossible! Incompatible! Why? Because women are easily impressed by situations, they are sensitive to situations, they are helpless in the face of unexpected situations!!!

2. Surgery requires great physical strength. Women often lack this…!

Source: www.whatsupdoc-lemag.fr

Unlike medicine, the proportion of women in surgery is significantly lower than that of men. “The gap between male and female numbers remains significant, but over time it tends to decrease with changing mentalities and” gender equality in modern societies. Currently, female surgeons mainly perform pediatric and gynecological-obstetric surgeries.

In France, female surgeons represent only 16.8% in general surgery, and in Germany, only 3% of surgical management positions are held by women. While female medical students in France represent 70% of students, only 30% choose to become surgeons.

THE DIFFERENT SPECIALTIES OF SURGERY

Several types of surgery exist, depending on the organ to be operated on:

• Pediatric surgery: saves the lives of babies and infants. It gives them hope to survive despite malformations or organ malfunctions. Source: chirurgie-ophtalmologie-paris.com
• Maxillofacial surgery and plastic surgery: correct the errors of road accidents, birth defects.
• Gynecological and obstetric surgery: saves many lives of women and newborns. With cesarean sections, uterus implantation, uterus removal for some, cyst removal, etc.
• Ophthalmic surgery: treats vision problems with lens implantations or other operations.
• Plastic and cosmetic surgery: helps people overcome very apparent complexes or corrects facial features and/or body parts to give an image as desired by the patient.
• Orthopedic surgery: involves diagnosing and treating serious injuries to bones and the musculoskeletal system, such as bone fractures or hip fractures.
• Vascular surgery: treats diseases of the arteries, veins and vessels of the chest, arms and legs.
  Source: www.espoir-international.com
• Urological surgery: urology is the field of medicine that applies to the kidneys, urinary tract of men and women, and the male reproductive system.
• Digestive surgery: operates on organs of the digestive system.
• Neurosurgery: handles diagnoses and surgical interventions for nervous system disorders.

PORTRAITS OF SOME FAMOUS FEMALE SURGEONS

Coming from a Russian bourgeois family, Marie Wilbouchewitch (1864-1941) began medical studies in France. She failed the internship exam in 1887 and with great perseverance succeeded in 1888. She was appointed to the pediatric medicine and surgery departments of Georges Felizet at Tenon Hospital, then of Louis-Alexandre de Saint-Germain at the Children’s Hospital. This surgeon remains in the history of French medicine as the first woman to have completed full internship studies.

Born in 1938, Francine Leca was the first woman to become a cardiac surgeon in France. Specializing in pediatric surgery, she was appointed head of the cardiac surgery department at Laennec Hospital in 1989, before taking charge of Necker Hospital until her retirement in 2006. Still active, Francine Leca now divides her time between fundraising and traveling to Syria or Yemen to train cardiologists. She founded an association to treat poor children with heart defects. Francine Leca has received the Legion of Honor and the National Order of Merit.

The profession of a surgeon requires a certain level of self-control and excellent knowledge of medicine and the human body. In the operating room, the surgeon must demonstrate meticulousness, skill, and precision. It is a high-responsibility job that requires composure and significant physical and mental resilience.

To work as a surgeon, it is therefore more than necessary to be passionate and to break stereotypes surrounding the profession of a female surgeon. For this, it is certainly necessary to have a lot of motivation but also to show young high school girls inspiring models of female surgeons so that they can identify with and turn towards this exciting profession.

Written by Soumya D. and Ornella S.