Article
Paths to success – women in German neurosurgery
Wege zum Erfolge: Chefärztinnen der Neurochirurgie in Deutschland
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Authors
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Miriam Weiss
- Kantonsspital Aarau, Klinik für Neurochirurgie, Aarau, Schweiz
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Ulrike Eisenberg
- Berlin, Deutschland
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Aruni Velalakan
- Neurochirurgisches Zentrum, Ludwigsburg-Heilbronn, Deutschland
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Ina Moritz
- Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Klinik für Neurochirurgie, Berlin, Deutschland
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Dorothea Nistor-Gallo
- Neurochirurgische Klinik, Erlangen, Deutschland
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Charlotte Flüh
- Universitätsklinikum Schleswig-Holstein, Campus Kiel, Klinik für Neurochirurgie, Kiel, Deutschland
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Silvia Hernández-Durán
- Universitätsmedizin Göttingen, Neurochirurgische Klinik, Göttingen, Deutschland
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Stefanie Maurer
- Universitätsklinikum Frankfurt, Klinik für Neurochirurgie, Frankfurt a. M., Deutschland
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Karlijn Hakvoort
- Universitätsklinikum RWTH Aachen, Klinik für Neurochirurgie, Aachen, Deutschland
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Jutta Krüger
- Hamburg, Deutschland
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Marie-Thérèse Forster
- Universitätsklinikum Frankfurt, Klinik für Neurochirurgie, Frankfurt a. M., Deutschland
| Published: | May 25, 2022 |
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Outline
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Objective: Advances in gender equality in medicine have been achieved worldwide. In Germany, almost 70% of medical students are female, and the proportion of board-certified physicians is approximately 60%. However, on the path to leadership positions, the proportion of women becomes progressively less, with female department chairs being a minority. This phenomenon is particularly true in surgical specialties, and neurosurgery is not an exception, with only 9% of department chairs being women. This must be changed.
Methods: We conducted structured interviews of all female chairs in German neurosurgery since its beginning and gathered descriptive information on their ways into leadership positions.
Results: All 21 former and current female neurosurgical chairs are still alive and aged between 44 and 82 years. Having obtained their chair positions between 1993 and 2020, 8 of them have retired or quit their chair position due to personal reasons. Of those still practicing, two are directors of academic centres and 11 female neurosurgeons chair high-volume centres. Three female chairs do not hold professorships. German female neurosurgical chairs had completed their training after 6.8 ± 1.5 years, and it took them further 13.7 ± 4.5 years through the ranks between training completion and chair acquisition. Six female neurosurgical chairs had made working experiences or fellowship training abroad. Information on private life was obtained by 13 German female neurosurgical chairs, with 7 having children and 8 being in a relationship.
Conclusion: This study provides information on the small number of German female neurosurgical chairs and their long and winding, obstacle-ridden paths to neurosurgical leadership positions. In future, these should become historical in order to perceive the presence of women in leadership positions no longer as an oddity, but as self-evident normality, reflecting our society. However, further analyses comparing paths of both German female and male neurosurgical chairs are necessary for highlighting women´s difficulties on their way to neurosurgical leadership positions.
