Original title: Barriers and facilitators to implementing Women in Surgery initiatives at UK medical schools: A qualitative study
Samruddhi Tagalpallewar, Lara Melloul, Oliwia Bogucka, Lucy Bowden +4 · August 2026
Women make up over half of UK medical school graduates, but only 17% of consultant surgeonsThe most senior type of surgeon in the UK, who has completed all training and can operate independently.. This gap limits female students' access to mentorship and career opportunities. Special Women in Surgery programs at medical schools aim to fix this imbalance and support aspiring female surgeons. Researchers interviewed 53 representatives across 24 UK medical schools between October and December 2024 to see how these programs work. They found that only 10 schools had an active or developing initiative, even though student demand was 83.3%. Schools with these groups showed higher engagement in gender equity and greater student awareness. However, several barriers slow them down. High workloads and a lack of student time proved to be the biggest hurdle, followed by funding limits and poor access to female surgeons. Schools without programs struggled most to find female surgeons, while schools with programs found funding to be their biggest challenge.
Imagine a group of friends wants to start a school chess club. They need a teacher to supervise, a room to meet in, and a few chess sets. Some schools already have the club running, but most don't. The schools without the club say the hardest part is finding a teacher who knows chess. The schools with the club say the hardest part is getting enough chess sets. In this paper, the chess club is a Women in Surgery program, the teacher is access to female surgeons, and the chess sets are funding.
Half of UK medical graduates are women, but only 17% become consultant surgeons. That gap means fewer female mentors and role models for aspiring surgeons. This study shows that most medical schools lack the programs that could help close it, and identifies the real barriers—workload, funding, and access to female surgeons—that need fixing.
The abstract does not specify how schools were selected, so the sample may not represent all UK medical schools. It also does not report response rates or whether non-participating schools differed systematically. The study identifies barriers but does not test any interventions to overcome them.
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Barriers and facilitators to implementing Women in Surgery initiatives at UK medical schools: A qualitative study — Samruddhi Tagalpallewar, Lara Melloul, Oliwia Bogucka et al. — Surgery open science — doi:10.1016/j.sopen.2026.08.008
Abstract licence: CC BY
Explanation generated by Synthesis from the abstract — it is not the original paper.