females in ortho

Well, I do have to say that this thread is interesting. As a female thinking about going into ortho, it's confusing because of all the mixed signals from all the people. I've had people tell me that no matter what I size, I should do what I love but then I've had people look at me and tell me realistically I would need to "bulk up." Most of the time I don't let people tell me what I can and cannot do but at the same time I don't want my career to be a "struggle" - although I don't mind the work/struggle while I'm a resident - I can handle that for 5 years. If any "petite" (or other of course) women who are in the field have any thoughts on their experiences, please send them my way! I would love to know what residents and attendings are thinking now...

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double entry of next post

I believe the latter post is reassuring for applicants to programs with stronger ethical beliefs regarding discrimination, particularly for those women who are considered outstanding applicants.

This does not hold for many other programs, however. And for those women who may be considered average/marginal applicants, there is less likelyhood of hearing someone hitting the jackpot as you may hear with some of the male applicants.

at least a 1/2 dozen programs come off the top of my head who STATED that prefer to have a male in their program, either due to bad experiences with women or they "have enough women in the program". I will not name these programs on this website, and am fairly certain there are more.


Good luck, and be careful of which programs to apply or spend your 4 weeks doing an AI. You may want to discuss with the residency coordinator about their opinions on taking a female:

If I were a female looking for an AI, ask a male to call the program and say "hey, are you trying to recruit women into your next year's class" and see what kind of (hopefully) honest responses you get.

joepub, I'm not sure what your agenda is here, but it's pretty obvious that you have some issues to deal with. Maybe your top choices in the match went to women and you are bitter. Maybe there is a woman at your program that you don't like. Maybe you're an applicant who is trying to decrease competition with scare tactics. Whatever your problem is, I say get over it and stop spouting all this BS on this board.

You can not possibly speak for each and every program in the country. And to think that you would refute what an actual PROGRAM DIRECTOR wrote is laughable. I'm sure Dr. Levine knows a tab bit more about the selection process countrywide than you would. And I'm sure he knows a hell of a lot more about Program Directors and their intentions than you.

I'll speak from experience at my school. We had two very well qualified female applicants, and they each had way more interviews that I did. They were strong applicants to begin with, and I know at least one of them was highly recruited by multiple programs. She ended up at her No. 1 choice, but easily could have matched at several other programs. Also, one of my co-residents this coming year will be female.

I don't think there is any conspiracy against women in ortho, at least not from my experience in the match this year. And to be quite honest, I think the women I met on the interview trail are competitive not because of their gender, but because they are extremely qualified. There are some programs who will take women to balance gender, but I would bet most programs rank women highly because they have great scores and are hard workers. The same reasons they would rank a competitive male highly.

Each time you post you spout this rhetoric about how women are at a disadvantage. Then you end your posts with some quasi-supportive line about how you hope it works out for them. I mean, dude, we're all finished with our psych rotations already. We can see right through you.

If you are honest and want to help out the women, then name the "at least 1/2 dozen programs" that have stated their disdain for women. And then let us hash it out on the board, have people write in to either support or deny the allegations.

But I will bet you won't write in with those programs, because my bet is that you are making it all up.

These approx 5-7 programs who directly said they have preference for males are mostly university affiliates or community programs.

Look around you and figure it out for yourself. They ain't hard to find. Some may have women, but they they're full on their agenda.

Yes there is in fact an issue to deal with- that discrimination in many forms (not just gender) is rampant in the ortho community. Gender is just one example. Just look around and see the clones in your own program.

Forgot to mention
Save the psychoanalysis for your psychosomatic patients.

If discrimination upsets people to such a degree, I'll leave it alone and let some other resident/appplicant bring up the ortho community bullshit as it continues to occur.

Later
JP

Just to respond to an earlier posting about small orthopaedists having to "bulk up," it's a little ridiculous. I have seen a female in orthopaedics during a very heavy trauma rotation. She was very slight in physical stature (<100 lbs). However, she was able to use her abilities to compensate for her size and was often more effective than males more than twice her size. The use of pulleys and weights is the proper setting and at the right angles can more than overcome even the smallest of physical sizes. The most important thing is to be able to think big, not be big. You may get some ignorant comments from people along the way (many of which should know much better), but definitely don't let anyone try to convince you that a woman's physique makes her less capable of being a great orthopaedic surgeon.