I’ll present my experience in orthopedic residency and fellowship and now practice. I trained at a small osteopathic residency with 10 residents. My chief year, 3/10 residents were women. We loved them every bit as much as any of my other residents, they were great and were like our family. Not once I heard a disparaging remark or any obvious discrimination. I’m sure there were isolated incidents that I’m not aware of though.
I also did out rotations at three other programs as a resident, all of which had female residents. They were treated with respect and as equals with their male counterparts as far as I could see. They were all great residents.
I did my trauma fellowship at perhaps the most progressive program in the country. 5/9 of my attendings were women, largest orthopedic department with percentage of female attendings in the country. They were some of the best surgeons I worked with. Also, the residency had many women residents, all of whom were treated well and were great people and residents.
1/5 of my current partners is a women. Exceptionally well trained, great leader, and a badass. She’s our department chair and director of MSK division. I’d have no qualms about her operating on me or my family.
My point here is, while I acknowledge that ortho is a male dominated field with women at somewhat inherit disadvantage, however, in my experience, women in orthopedics are thriving and are great to work with. Obviously it’s a shame with all the comments on the excel sheets and I’m sure sexism/discrimination against women exists in Ortho, it’s likely blown out of proportion in this thread and is likely no different than any other surgical sub specialty IMHO. The places I trained at and at my current workplace, any sort of unprofessionalism/sexism/discrimination/harassment would not be tolerated and immediately checked. You’d be fired and pushed out in no time.
