BOA strongly supports the role of women in trauma and orthopaedic surgery
The BOA’s vision is a vibrant, sustainable, representative orthopaedic community delivering high quality, effective care to fully informed patients. We fully appreciate that our current gender balance in trauma and orthopaedics lags behind other medical specialties, based on the latest report published by the GMC. That report also highlights that between 2007 and 2012 the number of women consultants in the UK T&O workforce increased by 69%; nevertheless, by 2012 they represented just 5% of the overall total.
There are clear signs of increasing numbers of women at the trainee stage, which are considerably higher than they were 10-20 years ago. As these women progress in their careers, the proportion in the workforce as a whole will increase. We welcome this wholeheartedly and continue to focus on redressing the balance.
We have contributed to these shifting trends through our significantly increased profile and promotional activity in recent years. However, we are not complacent, and some of our current activities in this area include:
- A project to promote T&O surgery as a career to undergraduate medical students, in which we are ensuring that we reach out to women and include female role models within publicity
- Collaborating with the Centre for Workforce Intelligence on a workforce stocktake that takes into account the increasing proportion of women in the specialty and any potential effects this may have on part-time working or career breaks
- Strong support for the Royal College of Surgeon’s work on ‘Women in Surgery’
The 2013 GMC state of medical education and practice in the UK, is available online here.