Female surgeons around the world recreate magazine cover to fight gender stereotypes

The New Yorker’s magazine latest issue carries an inspiring image on the cover

Artist Malike Favre created the image (The New Yorker)

Women surgeons around the world are recreating the front cover of The New Yorker’s latest issue to fight against stereotypes of the male-dominated industry.

The magazine’s cover, created by artist Malike Favre, features four illustrated female surgeons wearing face masks and staring down at a patient, with bright operating lights suspended above them. The image is drawn from the perspective of the patient on the operating table.

The image was created to fit with the themes of The New Yorker’s latest issue, with cover health and medicine, and has been replicated by hundreds of surgeons across the globe, the publication reported.

Dr Susan Pitt, an endocrine surgeon at the University of Wisconsin, kicked off the trend when she was at the American Association of Endocrine Surgeons conference after she recreated the cover with three other surgeons and tweeted it with the hashtag #ILookLikeASurgeon, which became popular last year.

“I hope it opens people’s eyes and minds that women can be surgeons and anything else they want to be,” she told Buzzfeed. “There is no such thing as a ‘man’s world’.”

Ms Pitt added that equality in the industry has become a strong movement in the industry, but that the emphasis is on inclusivity, not just women surgeons.

“A lot of people who have responded have mentioned that they want to show the pictures to their daughters so they will learn that they can be anything,” she said.

Dr Haneen Gomawi, from Saudi Arabia, told The New Yorker: “We (lady surgeons) face lots of challenges, in the surgical field and in life; despite the difference in countries.”

She told the magazine it felt empowering, bonding and reassuring to be able to take part in the challenge.