Blog: International Women's Day 2022

Miss Catherine McMahon is a Consultant Neurosurgeon and Lead for Trauma and Hydrocephalus here at The Walton Centre. To highlight International Women's Day, she has looked at how women feature in Neurosurgery, and the need for numbers to increase:

Since Diana Beck, who became the first female neurosurgeon back in 1939, there has been a massive increase in women in medicine. According to the General Medical Council, in 2018 over half of medical students in the UK were female, which is fantastic. However, the number of women pursuing a career in medicine, in surgery in particular, is much lower. 8% of consultant neurosurgeons in the UK are female. We buck the trend here in Liverpool (20%), but there is still work to be done – how do we ensure this increases? How do we keep changing for the better?

I think that, slowly and surely, the demands on women are balancing out. When I was a year five neurosurgical registrar, it was my partner who took time off when our new-born came along, as it was more financially viable. I see more and more couples sharing the traditional demands on women - young professionals I work with in the NHS – they are sharing the responsibilities, making opportunities for progression fairer. One of the few positives to come out of the pandemic has been the reemphasis on flexible working. I believe this is a factor in helping to promote equality too.

Thankfully, positive visibility of women is increasing, particularly with thanks to feminist groups and others like the ‘Me Too’ movement. I remember seeing an article recently by Professor Hopkins, the woman who discovered the link between COVID-19 and loss of smell, continually being introduced without her title of Professor, when her male colleagues weren’t. All too often women are portrayed stereotypically in the media, focusing on their appearance and relationship status, rather than their credentials and their expert opinion on the given subject. I believe the media is changing, but it has to be called out when inequalities aren’t addressed.

It takes time and new blood to make effective change, and I think this is slowly happening across the world, with new generations of young professionals. Inequality will endure as long as we continue to allow it. Where I can, I question this behaviour as much as possible, but in a way which doesn’t make people throw the defences up, otherwise nothing will change.

There are, and have been, so many incredible women in medicine. They are paving the way for future generations.