https://doi.org/10.4081/qrmh.2023.10902
Operating in the margins: Women’s lived experience of training and working in orthopaedic surgery in South Africa
Submitted: 4 October 2022
Accepted: 8 March 2023
Published: 27 April 2023
Accepted: 8 March 2023
Abstract Views: 1232
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All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.
Authors
Medicine in South Africa (SA), as in other parts of the world, is becoming an increasingly gender diverse profession, yet orthopaedic surgery continues to be dominated by men, with women constituting approximately 5% of the profession in SA. The aim of this descriptive qualitative study was to explore women’s experiences of training and working as orthopaedic surgeons in SA and identify structures, practices, attitudes, and ideologies that may promote or impede the inclusion of women. Data were collected via focus group discussions with women orthopaedic surgeons (n=16). Grounded in phenomenology, data were analysed using thematic analysis following a data-driven inductive approach to making sense of participants’ experiences. Five main themes emerged: i) dynamic working environments and the work of transformation; ii) negotiating competing roles of mother and surgeon; iii) belonging, exclusion and internalised sexism; iv) gaslighting and silencing; and v) acts of resistance – agency and pushing back. The findings highlight the dynamic process in which both men and women contribute to co-creating, re-producing, and challenging practices that make medicine more inclusive.
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How to Cite
Thiart, Marí, Megan O’Connor, Jana Müller, Nuhaa Holland, and Jason Bantjies. 2023. “Operating in the Margins: Women’s Lived Experience of Training and Working in Orthopaedic Surgery in South Africa”. Qualitative Research in Medicine and Healthcare 7 (1). https://doi.org/10.4081/qrmh.2023.10902.
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