'Support and awareness is key' to encourage more women to become surgeons

Since the 1990s, the ratio of female to male medical graduates has been at least 50/50, but the industry remains predominantly male. Helen O'Callaghan chats to two Irish women surgeons who want to see changes 

Surgery remains stubbornly male-dominated: just 10.5% of surgeons affiliated to RCSI are women. Picture: iStock

Peppa Pig’s playing in the background when Helen Mohan phones from Melbourne on a Friday night. The Raheny woman is about one third of the way into her fellowship in colorectal surgery at Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, a world leader in cancer research, education and treatment.

For the 38-year-old surgeon, the fellowship’s an important stage in her progression to consultant, and her husband Rory — who works in emergency medicine — along with their children, Domhnall, 4, and two-year-old twins Sophie and Oisín, all decamped with her to the Australian city back in February.