Search Engage

We want to establish this society because, despite women making up a significant proportion of UK medical school intakes (60%), inequalities remain in medical leadership, workplace experiences and the provision of healthcare for women. Women remain underrepresented in certain senior and surgical roles with women only making up 17% of surgical consultants. Additionally sexism and gender-based assumptions can undermine female clinicians’ confidence and professional experiences; the BMA sexism report showed 70% of female doctors reported that their clinical ability was doubted or undervalued based on their gender. A shocking statistic is that 96.8% of female medical students reported experiencing sexist micro aggressions during their medical education, which why we think this is such an important society for female medical students to have access to.

Furthermore, historical and ongoing disparities in medical research and clinical practice mean that women’s symptoms and health concerns may be overlooked, misunderstood or inadequately investigated. We believe that medical students have an important role to play in challenging these inequalities, promoting evidence-based awareness and advocating for more equitable healthcare.  For example, women are 27% less likely to receive CPR in public, with 46% of men feeling discomfort about removing a woman's clothing to apply a defibrillator. We hope to address this disparity by hosting educational events that raise awareness of gender inequalities in emergency care and equip people with the knowledge and confidence to perform CPR and use a defibrillator on women, emphasising that life saving interventions should never be delayed due to gender related discomfort or misconceptions. 

Equally, we recognise the importance of supporting female medical students throughout their training, ensuring they feel heard, valued and empowered to raise concerns without intimidation. By creating a community that combines peer support, wellbeing, mentorship, education and charitable action, we hope to inspire positive change both within the medical profession and beyond, helping to build a future in which women are equally represented, supported and appropriately cared for. As medical students, we truly believe that this society could be invaluable to female medical students and other women in healthcare.