Trainees are being abused by senior male surgeons, a major analysis given to the BBC reveals.

Sexual harassment, sexual assault and rape have been referred to as surgery’s open secret.

There is an untold story of women being fondled inside their scrubs, of male surgeons wiping their brow on their breasts and men rubbing erections against female staff. Some have been offered career opportunities for sex.

The analysis - by the University of Exeter, the University of Surrey and the Working Party on Sexual Misconduct in Surgery - has been shared exclusively with BBC News.

Nearly two-thirds of women surgeons that responded to the researchers said they had been the target of sexual harassment and a third had been sexually assaulted by colleagues in the past five years.

Women say they fear reporting incidents will damage their careers and they lack confidence the NHS will take action.

  • Alien Nathan Edward
    46·
    9 months ago

    You ever notice how in almost any industry, hobby, geographical area or any other demographic you care to pick, a story about sexual assault will get traction and then people in that demographic will be like “Yeah, sexual assault is kind of an open secret here”? Surgery. Fucking surgery. Someone is trying to give someone a new lease on life, a gift most precious that very few can bestow, and someone else is like “I’ll bet I can get a fistful of tiddy”, and an entire room full of people are like “This is fine and normal. Let’s not do anything about it.”

    • PersnickityPenguin
      16·
      9 months ago

      To be honest I’m not surprised. Have you ever met a surgeon before? Quite a few assholes who think they’re King of the world.

    • Shou@lemmy.world
      3·
      9 months ago

      Found a study that looked at the correlation between difference in hierachial status within the workspace and sexual objectification. In short they found that women sexually objectify men regardless of status, men sexually objectified women of a higher status then them much more than women of lower status.

      I wonder if this plays in here as well. Since surgery has some of the most arrogant asshats regardless of gender.

      Shit like this keeps making me lose trust in men. Having some decent male friends who are married and have kids, counter balances it. Though now, I always assume that any man is perfectly capable of being a predator.