ArticleQualitative research in medicine & healthcare2023
Operating in the margins: Women's lived experience of training and working in orthopaedic surgery in South Africa.
Article in Qualitative research in medicine & healthcare, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers.
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Who cites it
5 citing papers in PubMed.
- Perceptions and protective experiences regarding reproductive hazards among operating room healthcare workers of childbearing age: a qualitative study.Frontiers in public health · 2026Article
- Barriers and facilitators for female practitioners in orthopaedic training and practice: a scoping review.ANZ journal of surgery · 2025Article
- Coping With Microaggressions and Gaslighting in the Surgical Learning Environment.Plastic and reconstructive surgery. Global open · 2025Article
- Challenges for the Female Surgeon in Orthopedic Surgery - A Scoping Review.Orthopedic research and reviews · 2025Review
- Editorial: Using qualitative research in the classroom.Qualitative research in medicine & healthcare · 2023Article
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Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
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Abstract
Medicine in South Africa (SA), as in other parts of the world, is becoming an increasingly gender diverse profession, yet orthopaedic surgery continues to be dominated by men, with women constituting approximately 5% of the profession in SA. The aim of this descriptive qualitative study was to explore women's experiences of training and working as orthopaedic surgeons in SA and identify structures, practices, attitudes, and ideologies that may promote or impede the inclusion of women. Data were collected via focus group discussions with women orthopaedic surgeons (n=16). Grounded in phenomenology, data were analysed using thematic analysis following a data-driven inductive approach to making sense of participants' experiences. Five main themes emerged: i) dynamic working environments and the work of transformation; ii) negotiating competing roles of mother and surgeon; iii) belonging, exclusion and internalised sexism; iv) gaslighting and silencing; and v) acts of resistance - agency and pushing back. The findings highlight the dynamic process in which both men and women contribute to co-creating, re-producing, and challenging practices that make medicine more inclusive.
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