Women and ethnic minority surgeons less likely to be promoted

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Women and ethnic minority groups are less likely to reach the top rank of surgeons than white men, even when they conform with traditional ‘white male patterns of working’, according to a study. Black women face the greatest disadvantage and are 42 percentage points less likely to have reached consultant level 10 years after joining as a junior surgeon than white men. Academics from the University of Surrey Business School and Queen Mary University, as well as an academic from investment management company ExodusPoint Capital, analysed data on 3,402 NHS junior surgeons in England from 2009-10, studying how many had progressed to consultant level by 2020. They found that compared to white men:

• Women of Indian and Pakistani ethnicity were 28 percentage points less likely to be promoted.
• White women were 21 percentage points less likely to be promoted
• Women of Chinese and south east Asian ethnicity were 14 percentage points behind
• Black men were 27 percentage points behind
• Indian and Pakistani men were 10 percentage points behind
• Men of Chinese and south east Asian ethnicity were 6 percentage points behind.

Even when comparing groups with the same amount of training hours and same record of “career interruptions”, such as taking time out to have children, women and Black men were less likely to reach consultant level than white males. “The most striking finding is that even when Indian women, white women and Black men conform to white male patterns of working, the progression gap is wide and, in some cases, very wide,” Professor Carol Woodhams from the University of Surrey said. “This is objective evidence that disadvantage against diverse groups in surgery is deep-rooted and a new progressive milieu in the NHS and the broader society has not yet translated into concrete and progressive outcomes. “Women, and especially non-white women, are under-represented in senior ranks of consultant, making a prima facie case for the existence of a glass ceiling. “Black male surgeons are severely disadvantaged. Black males work long hours, take very few part time or career interruptions and tend to work in most elite subspecialties of surgery. Yet they are one of the least likely to secure promotion.”