Trainees are being abused by senior male surgeons, a major analysis given to the BBC reveals.

Sexual harassment, sexual assault and rape have been referred to as surgery’s open secret.

There is an untold story of women being fondled inside their scrubs, of male surgeons wiping their brow on their breasts and men rubbing erections against female staff. Some have been offered career opportunities for sex.

The analysis - by the University of Exeter, the University of Surrey and the Working Party on Sexual Misconduct in Surgery - has been shared exclusively with BBC News.

Nearly two-thirds of women surgeons that responded to the researchers said they had been the target of sexual harassment and a third had been sexually assaulted by colleagues in the past five years.

Women say they fear reporting incidents will damage their careers and they lack confidence the NHS will take action.

    • DessertStorms
      26•10 months ago

      I absolutely disagree that humanity needs to be destroyed because a bunch of men can’t stop sexually abusing those around them, but the fact that it seems easier than ever getting them to stop really goes to show how bad the problem really is.

      • @ParsnipWitch@feddit.de
        4•10 months ago

        I feel like some people simply want that this gets accepted as natural. It has become normalized and many feel triggered by even mentioning this problem.

      • @agent_flounderEnglish
        4•10 months ago

        There are so many other reasons though…

    • ParkingPsychology
      7•10 months ago

      No need. Homo sapiens is near the end anyway. Doesn’t matter how it ends, if we get replaced by AIs, the next "Homo geneticmodified"or get wiped out. Kind of awesome to know, right? After 250,000 years, we’re among one of the last Homo sapiens. Peak Homo sapiens.

      You know what that means, “Homo sapiens”? It means “wise man”.

      We’re going to get completely ridiculed for doing that in the future. Who the fuck even calls themselves “wise man”. So lame.