UC Women in Orthopedic Surgery Come Together for Solidarity, Support

The field of orthopedic surgery faces a diversity challenge. One multi-campus initiative founded at UCSF is creating space and resources for women and people of other underrepresented genders in the field.

On Saturday, September 14, 2024, more than 60 people came together in a room on the University of California San Diego campus for the second annual UC Women of Ortho symposium. The attendees included primarily female orthopedic surgeons, physiatrists, researchers and trainees from the five UC campuses with orthopedic departments.

Originally founded by four female orthopedic surgeons from UC San Diego and UC San Franciso, one of whom is now at the Boston Children’s Hospital, UC Women of Ortho creates space for diversity in a field that has struggled to increase its numbers of practicing female surgeons and surgeons from underrepresented backgrounds.

“It’s wonderful to see so many more women actively in orthopedic surgery or considering orthopedic surgery as a career, but we have a long way to go,” said Susan Bukata, M.D., professor and chair of the UC San Diego Department of Orthopaedic Surgery and a founding member of UC Women of Ortho. “UC Women of Ortho allows us to share career strategies and opportunities in an open and supportive peer environment. We have a phenomenal, world-leading faculty across UC. This is only the beginning of what we can do.”

Tactics for meaningful change

According to a 2018 survey by the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons (AAOS), women make up just under 7% of practicing, full-time orthopedic surgeons of average age (50-59 years). More than 80% of respondents were white.

At this year’s UC Women in Ortho event, speakers in business, finance, and the medical field from the UC San Diego, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Davis, and Irvine campuses shared the potential consequences of this imbalance, including isolation, burnout, discrepancies in pay, and an increased sense of competition between female surgeons.

“I think creating a network of supportive women is a powerful tool, and I do think that we need to do a better job of supporting each other instead of competing against each other,” said Bahar Shahidi, Ph.D., associate professor of orthopedic surgery at UC San Diego, and an attendee of the 2024 symposium. “[UC Women of Ortho] is a great place to open up those modalities of communication, put all of the challenges and emotions on the table and work together toward strategies and solutions.”

Speakers and attendees also engaged to share key insight into topics such as negotiating and advocating for professional boundaries and equal pay, and finding a mentor. In keeping with the event’s background, speakers presented findings on funding and wage gaps in science.

“I thought the data driven information on the financial value of women in the workplace was really key,” said Shahidi. “These are the tools and the pieces of information that I think we need to help us be empowered to push our limits, negotiate our worth, and be intentional about progress.”

A more open future

UC Women of Ortho launched in September 2023 through the combined efforts of Dr. Bukata; Coleen Sabatini, M.D., M.P.H., a professor of orthopedic surgery and vice chair of health equity and academic affairs at the UCSF Department of Orthopaedic Surgery; Melissa Zimel, M.D., an associate professor of orthopedic oncology and director of the Sarcoma Center at UCSF; and Kristin Livingston, M.D., director of the Orthopedic Trauma Program at Boston Children’s Hospital, with its inaugural leadership summit at UCSF. The symposium is open to people of all genders.  

“We started the UC Women in Ortho Symposium to bring together our colleagues from throughout the UC System so that we could learn from each other, share best practices, build our professional and personal networks, and support each other as we navigate our careers at the University of California," said Sabatini. "It is particularly important because some of the departments have very few women; ensuring that everyone has the mentorship, guidance, and support necessary to be successful in their careers is imperative to retain our women faculty in UC orthopaedics and to inspire future generations of women and medical students of color in California to pursue careers in orthopedics."

“Our connection through the UC system is a uniquely powerful opportunity. It allows us to work together across varying but connected institutions, each with its individual cultures and departmental goals, towards the common goal of supporting women within our larger health care system,” said Micah K. Sinclair, M.D., an associate professor in orthopedic surgery with UC Davis. “This is in comparison to working together within a specialty society, because this can have a potentially greater impact within our daily lives and work. I have also really enjoyed this opportunity to get to know my colleagues better. They are amazingly accomplished women who I am fortunate to team up with.”

UC Davis is tentatively scheduled to host the next gathering of UC Women of Ortho in the fall of 2025 in Sacramento, CA.