Trainees are being abused by senior male surgeons, a major analysis given to the BBC reveals.

Sexual harassment, sexual assault and rape have been referred to as surgery’s open secret.

There is an untold story of women being fondled inside their scrubs, of male surgeons wiping their brow on their breasts and men rubbing erections against female staff. Some have been offered career opportunities for sex.

The analysis - by the University of Exeter, the University of Surrey and the Working Party on Sexual Misconduct in Surgery - has been shared exclusively with BBC News.

Nearly two-thirds of women surgeons that responded to the researchers said they had been the target of sexual harassment and a third had been sexually assaulted by colleagues in the past five years.

Women say they fear reporting incidents will damage their careers and they lack confidence the NHS will take action.

  • @SpiderShoeCult
    2•9 months ago

    ‘tought it out, buttercup’ and other things along the same lines get (got?) pistoned into boys’ minds as soon as they are (were?) able to understand it. would they even know what being on the receiving end of sexual assault is growing up? high school level jokes say that it’s only assault if it comes from a source you do not specifically approve of. been a while since I’ve been in high school but I would imagine no significant change has happened lately? or, at least there was no significant change for the generations mentioned in the article.

    point being, it’s unpleasant, but different realities are, it seems, still a thing. maybe this’ll get fixed in a couple more generations?

    I wonder how many respondents of the traditional male upbringing were truthful in their answers (after all, admitting you were sexually assaulted is not the ‘manliest’ of traits in said dogma…)