Breaking barriers: Analysing the professional landscape for female gynaecological surgeons in Italy.

Objective: To examine the status of female gynaecological surgeons in Italy in terms of discriminatory practices and the availability of opportunities for improvement within the operating theatre.
Methods: This study is a subanalysis of a comprehensive 83-item questionnaire, administered to 3242 female surgeons across various specialties from 1 November to 31 December 2020. This study focuses specifically on 219 female gynaecological surgeons in order to explore their unique experiences and challenges in surgical practice.
Main Outcome Measures: Data concerning subjective satisfaction of respondents were collected. Satisfaction was evaluated using a five-point Likert scale. Data are presented using mean, median or frequency.
Results: This subanalysis included 207 respondents. Among the respondents, 47 % reported that they had children, while 31 % had decided not to have children for professional reasons. Nearly half of the respondents (42 %) were trainees. Despite a considerable workload (mean working week of 45 h), 96 % of the respondents reported spending less than half of their working time in the operating theatre. They performed a median of two operations per week, compared with five operations for their male counterparts. Despite challenges, 65 % expressed a commitment to their career path.
Conclusions: Efforts to address gender bias, promote work-life balance, and enhance female leadership representation are essential. These findings emphasize the need for systemic changes to create a supportive environment for female gynaecologists. Further research with broader sampling is warranted to fully understand and address these challenges.
Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
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