UCL Women in Surgery conference wins Best National Event

The Women in Surgery conference hosted by UCL Surgical Society was named Best National Event at the 2020 National Societies and Volunteering Awards.

Photography by UCL Surgical Society

In an online ceremony held in May, Women in Surgery conference hosted by UCL Surgical Society won the title of Best National Event - one of the 12 categories covered by the 2020 National Societies and Volunteering Awards. The society saw sizeable competition in the face of 44 participant institutions and 300 nominations across all categories.

According to the Royal College of Surgeons, surgery remains one of the most male-dominated medical fields in England, counting only 12.9% of female consultant surgeons as of 2019. By facilitating access to female mentorship, the annual Women in Surgery conference has become a flagship event of UCL Surgical Society, dispelling widespread misconceptions about gender barriers contributing to the divide.

The society’s incumbent president, Maria Georgi, addressed the common fallacy that the demands of a surgical career leave little time for women to spend with family: “It’s difficult to balance any career with a family but pursuing surgery and having a family are not mutually exclusive.” She also rejected the misconception “that [the surgical field] follows the ‘old boys club’ attitude, being a sexist and hostile environment for women.”

The conference was attended by 150 student delegates, over 40 female mentors coming from diverse ethnic and specialist backgrounds as well as five high-profile panellists. Among the latter was Dr Houriya Kazim, the UAE’s first female surgeon, who has single-handedly raised public awareness about breast cancer - a subject that, for decades, was taboo in the country. As Kazim travelled from Dubai to attend the conference, UCL became the first UK university at which she has spoken.

Aside from suturing and maxillofacial surgery workshops, the conference incorporated an innovative method of “Speed Mentoring,” which imitates speed dating, allowing trainees to meet multiple surgical mentors in a short period of time. At the end of the mentoring circuits, contact details of surgeons were distributed among students to consolidate the budding student-mentor relationships.

“Students spent 10 minutes with each surgeon, and they could ask any questions - from career advice to balancing motherhood with a surgical career,” explained Georgi. “It can be difficult to believe that one cannot have both a family and a thriving surgical career when seeing women who have achieved that and continue to balance both,” she added.

In light of the conference’s success, UCL Surgical Society decided to launch a nationwide Women in Surgery Mentoring Scheme, the purpose of which is to pair female medical students with female surgeons from across the country. The society is to host networking evenings in the future, in order to sustain relationships initiated by the scheme.

Three years after its initial launch, the annual Women in Surgery conference has been replicated by multiple medical schools, yet it remains the largest conference of its kind in the UK, leaving a lasting impact on its attendees.

Qudsiya Baig – a medical student at Kings College London (KCL) – praised the conference in an Instagram post: “Learning from female surgeons is truly inspirational. They are living proof of defying all odds and conquering the many obstacles that come with pursuing surgery, especially as a woman. The best thing I learnt from them is that you CAN have it all, just not all at once and that's okay.”