Contemporary challenges for a curriculum to foster interest in surgical careers: a multicentric study on the evolving needs of female medical students to consider a career as a surgeon in Germany.

Early obstacles to career progression of women in surgery present a major challenge in a variety of surgical subspecialties. Although there is a variety of literature on the attitudes and needs of female residents and trainees to foster interest in a career as a surgeon, there is a lack of research about the perspectives of female medical students about a possible career as a surgeon. In this paper, we report the results of a multicentric study on the evolving needs of female medical students to consider a career as a surgeon in Germany. We confirm several results mentioned in the available literature on the topic, but also add novel insights, in particular, which attitudes and obstacles already shape earlier than during trainee programmes or residency, namely, during medical school. Our results indicate that a curriculum to foster interest in surgical careers has to incorporate three core ingredients: (1) Effective concepts against gender discrimination, (2) measures to work towards more flexible work times and better work-life-balance of female surgeons and (3) an increase in female role models and mentoring programmes, tailored specifically for female medical students.