Changing the norm towards gender equity in surgery: the women in surgery working group of the Association of Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland’s perspective

Competition ratios for surgical specialty applications have declined. To ensure that all individuals attracted to surgery are enabled to flourish and enjoy their surgical careers, we need to change the “surgical norm”. This particularly applies for women, since currently 54% of the foundation trainees in surgery are female (Moberly, 2018), and even if most of the challenges to succeed in a high competitive field are common to both sexes, there are barriers, hidden or evident, peculiar to women. We report the Association of Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland (ASGBI) women in surgery (WiS) working group’ perspective on changing the norm of the surgical environment, so that recruitment and investment in retention of surgical trainees of both genders could flourish.