My wife is wanting to do orthopeadic surgery, but I'm concerned that it will be difficult for her make it. Not because of the strenuous work but mainly the ridicule from her collegues.
How are women treated in this profession?
- Thread starter bessybug
- Start date
- Joined
- Mar 21, 2004
- Messages
- 16
- Reaction score
- 0
i am not sure what you mean by "ridicule".... ridicule because she isn't "strong enough" or she is just "another dumb ortho jock".....
granted, statistically, there are more males than females in the surgical specialities. there are a variety reasons for that, which is in another post in itself.
having gone through the match this year as a XX, i was pleasantly surprised by the number of females that i met on the trail. on top of the fact that every guy or gal that i meet were super-friendly, incredibly nice and would loved to have them all in my residency program. to match in ortho, you have to be in the top of your game and class. all the folks that i meet on the trail were all smart kids who decided ortho because they loved the field.
as to the strength issue. granted, a 100lb gal isn't going to be able to have the brute strength as a 200lb guy. but realize that relocating hip joints isn't about brute strength. if you don't understand anatomy and use it to you best advantage as to when to flex/ext/abduct/adduction to get the hip back... you will be spending a lot of time with that dislocated hip.... no matter how strong youare. oh, did i mention the power tools? all you have to do is press a button.....
if ortho is what your wife wants to do, encourage her and be her best cheerleader. people will say what they want. but as long as she has a good attitude and aptitude, they can only say good things.
granted, statistically, there are more males than females in the surgical specialities. there are a variety reasons for that, which is in another post in itself.
having gone through the match this year as a XX, i was pleasantly surprised by the number of females that i met on the trail. on top of the fact that every guy or gal that i meet were super-friendly, incredibly nice and would loved to have them all in my residency program. to match in ortho, you have to be in the top of your game and class. all the folks that i meet on the trail were all smart kids who decided ortho because they loved the field.
as to the strength issue. granted, a 100lb gal isn't going to be able to have the brute strength as a 200lb guy. but realize that relocating hip joints isn't about brute strength. if you don't understand anatomy and use it to you best advantage as to when to flex/ext/abduct/adduction to get the hip back... you will be spending a lot of time with that dislocated hip.... no matter how strong youare. oh, did i mention the power tools? all you have to do is press a button.....
if ortho is what your wife wants to do, encourage her and be her best cheerleader. people will say what they want. but as long as she has a good attitude and aptitude, they can only say good things.
- Joined
- Mar 10, 2006
- Messages
- 760
- Reaction score
- 2
I know lots of ortho guys that are thin older guys. They don't look like they could lift a heavy book, let alone a 50lb leg. They do it though. Strength is less important than knowledge of A&P.
N
njbmd
bessybug said:
Hi there,
Tell you wife to look up Dr. Claudia Taylor who is a female orthopedic surgeon at Johns Hopkins. Dr. Taylor looks like she stepped out of Vogue magazine. Women are going into orth because they find the specialty interesting. With today's new surgical techniques, there is less emphasis on brute force. There is even an orthopedic surgeon at Hopkins who is an achrondroplastic dwarf.
You wife can go into any specialty and experience the ridicule of colleagues if the colleagues are jerks. If she loves ortho, then pursue it.
njbmd
- Joined
- Dec 20, 2003
- Messages
- 379
- Reaction score
- 11
bessybug said:
Regarding ridecule from other collegues, I haven't experienced it. Sure, everyone pokes fun at the pod in the room, but pods also tend to be (assuming no personality disorder) amongst the most respected in the room. There's an order of magnitude difference, I think, between the good-humor ridicule that pods face and that which is given to other specialisties (EM for example). Pods tend to be very hard workers and very nice to to work with (generalizing here folks!).
One of the reasons I chose ortho was because of the respect that the field both earns and enjoys. Personality disorders seem to be far rarer in ortho than most other specialties. Simply hard working and fun people. The ridicule thing is at worst generally good humored in nature. If she likes the work, she'll love the specialty. Encourage her!!!
