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Capelli et al. Art Int Surg 2023;3:80-9 Artificial
DOI: 10.20517/ais.2022.40
Intelligence Surgery

Editorial Open Access

Women surgeons fighting for work-life balance: how
technology might help close the gender gap

3
1,#
4
Giulia Capelli 1,2,# , Dajana Glavas , Linda Ferrari , Daunia Verdi , Gaya Spolverato 1
1
Department of Surgical, Oncological and Gastroenterological Sciences (DiSCOG), University of Padova, Padova 35122, Italy.
2
Department of Surgery, ASST Bergamo Est, Seriate (Bergamo) 24068, Italy.
3
Colorectal and Pelvic Floor Department, Guy’s and St Thomas NHS Foundation Trust, Westminster Bridge Road, London
SE17EH, UK.
4
Department of Surgery, Mirano Hospital, Mirano (Venezia) 30035, Italy.
#
Both authors contributed equally.
Correspondence to: Dr. Giulia Capelli, Department of Surgical, Gastroenterological and Oncological Sciences, First Surgical
Clinic, University of Padova, Via Giustiniani 2, Padua 35128, Italy. E-mail: giulia.capelli1990@gmail.com
How to cite this article: Capelli G, Glavas D, Ferrari L, Verdi D, Spolverato G. Women surgeons fighting for work-life balance:
how technology might help close the gender gap. Art Int Surg 2023;3:80-9. https://dx.doi.org/10.20517/ais.2022.40
Received: 12 Dec 2022 First Decision: 14 Mar 2023 Revised: 4 Apr 2023 Accepted: 26 Apr 2023 Published: 8 May 2023

Academic Editors: Gudrun Aspelund, Heba Taher Copy Editor: Ke-Cui Yang Production Editor: Ke-Cui Yang

Abstract
Despite a growing number of women choosing to pursue surgical specialties, surgery is still perceived as a woman-
unfriendly career. The difficulties of conciliating a demanding career with the requirements of both personal and
family life for women surgeons have been investigated by several authors. The current study aims to summarize
existing evidence on the issue of work-life balance for women surgeons, particularly focusing on possible strategies
to improve it. Artificial intelligence (AI) has been investigated as a possible means to close the gender gap, acting
as an equalizer for women surgeons. Female surgeons have been reported to be unmarried or to have married later
in life at a higher rate than their male colleagues; many of them also choose not to have children or to have fewer
and to have them later in life. These disparities are partly due to the issues connected to invisible work (e.g.
household management), the difficulties of managing pregnancy during surgical residency, the challenges women
face when returning to work following maternity leave, and the lack of a supportive environment. Flexible work
schedules, implementation of childcare facilities, introduction and encouragement of paternity leave for surgeons,
and enforcement of mentorship and sponsorship for female surgeons are some of the proposed solutions for
building a fair and equitable work culture for all surgeons and overthrowing old, conventional ideas concerning
gender roles. Moreover, technology has been advocated as a possible solution to gender discrimination in surgical
departments; technology could facilitate an objective assessment of surgical performances and advanced training
for surgeons unable to attend in-person education. A healthy, thriving, organized, supportive, and culturally

© The Author(s) 2023. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, sharing,
adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, for any purpose, even commercially, as
long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and
indicate if changes were made.

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