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Special Issue introduction:

In these last years gender-based discrimination has become more subtle with
microaggression instead of explicit physical or verbal assaults, making reporting

not frequent, thus perpetuating these events. Institutions should offer a safe place
where identify and safely report all episodes and should educate the surgical teams

to recognize and condemn them. We are in charge, as surgical community, to
educate the next generation of men and women surgeons to gender equity, which is

a key factor in achieving excellence in surgery. Why? If not only because it is the
right thing to do, it's because at this time, women represent 50% of human capital in

surgery but, despite this increase in numbers, there is not a proportional increase of
women surgeons in leadership positions: the floor is still sticky and the glass ceiling

remains unbroken1. Leaders have to be representative of the community they serve
otherwise needs and requests from a specific group, will be ignored. It is everyone's

responsibility to invest in women's professional skills and promote the capable ones,
knowing that gender itself is not an absolute value, but it should not be an obstacle.

After the Seventies Revolution, gender equity has become again a popular issue

with an increasing public activism not only in the surgical field, but so much ado
and resonance can lead to a double effect: increase the awareness of the problem or,

on the other side, surcharge people's interest and even worst, women's one. If I think
about our young female colleagues, I fear that they don't feel touched by gender-

issues, they feel they'll succeed because they're excellent doctors and surgeons
and, moreover, they don't want to be part of a disadvantaged group, even if, at this

time, they are. In 2021 gender-based discrimination affects women surgeons from
training to career progression often becoming a visible barrier to reach leadership

positions. Many associations of women surgeons have been created in the past years
worldwide, and the possibility of instant communication through social media,

made these communities not isolated anymore: we are growing and getting stronger.
Different countries, same old stories. What can we do more?

Increase the awareness of an existing problem has been an essential step in the

problem-solving process but the road to equity is still long. We need surgeons,
Surgical Societies, Editorial Boards, Academic and Institutions to declare where they

stand and to adopt policies that neutralize the effects of conscious and unconscious