Since the Annual General Meeting in May this year the new president of the Medical Women’s Federation (MWF) is Professor Scarlett McNally, an orthopaedic surgeon and mother of four. Scarlett writes a piece for the British Medical Journal (BMJ) every month on topical issues. One of these was on sexism in medicine and the different experiences of men and women in medicine https://www.bmj.com/content/bmj/380/bmj.p551.full.pdf . In April MWF released a statement in response to an article in the Times newspaper ‘Sexual assault, crude banter – what it’s like to be a female surgeon’ https://www.medicalwomensfederation.org.uk/news/mwf-s-response-to-the-times-article-sexual-assault-crude-banter-what-it-s-like-to-be-a-female-surgeon MWF have signed a joint pledge to end sexism in medicine, which has been highlighted as a big problem.
MWF’s Vice President is Dr Nuthana Bhayankaran, a Paediatric Registrar, who has just begun her second term. A wonderful feature of her tenure has been a series of podcasts. The first of 24 episodes in Season 1 was in February 2022 ‘Celebrating 105 years of the Medical Women’s Federation’. We are now into Season 3. I would highly recommend listening to some of the episodes https://open.spotify.com/show/2QySe5t68vt0yTFX2dhmZ6 .
MWF has a very active body of medical students, with representatives in many medical schools. The first of a series of Research Webinars for Students over the next four months took place in early June ‘Maximising Academic Experience: Student Guide’. Future titles are: How to write a robust manuscript; Conference Presentations: the beginning to the end to everything in between; Building and Enhancing your portfolio’.