Androcentric bias in surgical equipment - What challenges do women face?

Abstract

Background: Increasing diversity amongst surgeons results in a wide range of sizes and strengths. There are many types of biases affecting women surgeons. This study evaluates what challenges women surgeons may have with surgical equipment.

Methods: An online survey was distributed to Women in Surgery social media groups in North America and Australasia between April 2022-July 2022.

Results: There were 480 respondents across the range of specialties. 453 surgeons were included. Median glove size was 6.5. Difficulty with use of surgical instruments due to size was reported by 89% of surgeons and 71% reported difficulty due to the required grip strength. One hundred and twelve different tools were reported to be problematic.

Conclusions: This study highlights a potential source of androcentric bias which could be addressed to improve equity for women surgeons.

Keywords: Androcentric bias; Surgical equipment; Women in surgery; Women surgeons.