The role of women in the National Health System and their future in the total number of Health staff has served as an analysis for the report ‘Supply-Need for Medical Specialists 2021-2035’, which indicates the medical specialties that in the next few years will have a fewer women.
The surgical specialties are the ones that will foreseeably have fewer doctors and, according to the data in the aforementioned report, it will be specifically Cardiovascular surgery the least feminized in which they —according to the estimate— will occupy only 27 percent of the total workforce. José Miguel Barquero Aroca, president of the Spanish Society of Cardiovascular Surgery (SECCE), assures Medical Writing that this fact is only motivated by “preference” of the MIR applicants who make one or another choice when selecting their position and that, if that estimate were fulfilled, it would be “the result of chance”.
Although in statements to this newspaper, the surgeon highlights that in recent years the presence of women in operating rooms is “increasing a lot”. “When I started in this, we had two female colleagues and now almost 30 percent are women, so you can see that the trend is changing.” And he notes: “General surgery is greatly increasing the total number of women in its workforcebut there were almost always more also in the past”.
Reduce the gender gap in surgery
The report indicates that the equalization of the time of maternity and paternal leave, which entered into force in 2021 for both parents, has been an important boost in substantially reducing the gender gap in the SNS, although they point out that it is still women who request more time off. leave of absence or reductions in working hours to assume the tasks of caring for minors and dependents.
In this sense, Barquero Aroca states that “operating room hours are less stable, in terms of schedule. At the surgical level, it is common for the working session is prolonged, but you realize this when you finish the specialty. When you access the MIR you take the specialty you like, you don’t think regarding whether you’re going to work more or less hours or if that schedule can be more adapted to their family needs”. In addition, she highlights that the number of women is, in general, a minority in all surgical departments, although there are “other medical-surgical specialties that have fewer operating room hours than ours” .
“What it is regarding, mainly, is that each one can do the specialty you want. There is no obligation to reach 50 per cent of men and women nor does it have to be a goal. Each one who chooses what he likes the most… Or what interests him according to what he later wants to do with his life”, he affirms to Medical Writing the president of the SECCE.
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