Documentary aims to expose gender inequality, need for reform in surgical field
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An upcoming documentary film, “1001 Cuts,” aims to show the operating room through the eyes of female surgeons and expose the gender discrimination they face every day.
“We named the documentary ‘1001 Cuts’ because of the small insults that women experience every day,” Sarah M. Temkin, MD, a gynecologic oncologist and executive producer of the film, said during an interview with Healio. “We added one extra cut as a nod to Scheherazade from the collection of stories, One Thousand and One Nights. She was a woman who saved her own life through storytelling. My hope is that this documentary is a story of resilience and will create new and safe spaces for women in the workforce.”
The documentary is still in production and is expected to air in early 2022.
Temkin spoke with Healio about what led her to create this documentary, the story she hopes it will tell and what she wants it to provide for others like her in the medical field.
Healio: What prompted the making of this documentary?
Temkin: I decided to make this documentary in the fall of 2020. It stemmed from my experience as a female surgeon. I am trained as a gynecologic oncologist and decided to enter the surgical field through gynecology mainly because when I was in medical school in the 1990s, there were very few women in surgery. I was hesitant to enter a workplace where I would be the only woman, but once I started training, I realized I enjoyed surgery and had a talent for it. Through my 15 years of practice, I came to realize that even though I was a female surgeon surrounded by female patients, I still experienced gender-based discrimination similar to that of my peers in other areas of medicine. I found myself unable to find an environment free of bullying and gender discrimination and stopped practicing in 2020. I had already been reflecting on my career and why it had been so difficult to find a supportive work environment. After speaking with other surgeons, I found a common theme — a lack of respect and support in the operating room. The operating room is an accessible place and high-stress environment, and everyone is dependent on the team functioning to the best of its ability. At the same time, the operating room is the epicenter of masculine culture in health care. My friend who also happens to be a cameraman, Richard Chisolm, encouraged me to find a way to tell my story, as well as the story of other women, and to do it through film.
Healio: What is the documentary about?
Temkin: I hope this film tells the story of how dedicated the women featured are to their careers and to their patients and how they experience barriers and challenges that are different from those of their male colleagues. I also hope it provides potential solutions for women in medicine and women in our society. The concept of the documentary started in 2019. I contributed to a collection of narratives written by female surgeons who reflected on their careers. The compilation exposed a common theme of loss and diminishment. The collective voice made a powerful statement, more than one person could make alone. Through this work and some of my academic work in equity and gender equity specifically, however, we have seen women overcome these challenges and provide care that is just as good or better quality than provided by men.
Healio: What do you hope the film will provide for other women in the field?
Temkin: My hope is that this documentary will start a conversation. To solve any problem, there must be honest and transparent discussion about the problem. Physicians in general and surgeons specifically are driven by delayed gratification and they are resilient. They are accustomed to putting their heads down and getting the job done. However, experiences of discrimination often are hidden, and people feel embarrassed or ashamed to talk about them openly. My hope is that this film allows space for women, health care administrators, nurses, physicians and everyone to discuss these experiences openly.
I also hope this documentary will demonstrate that the solutions are not expensive or dramatic but simply involve realigning our incentives in health care around the patient. This is ultimately why we all entered health care. We cannot continue to train women to be assertive and decisive as surgeons and then punish them when they are perceived as aggressive and bossy. We should not be worried about the way doctors look, dress or act. Instead, we should focus on their skills and competence. We need to take a step back and think about our definitions of professionalism. We have an increasingly diverse workforce as physicians, and we need to make spaces where everyone feels supported.
Healio: What additional objectives do you have for this documentary?
Temkin: One thing that I have learned making this film is how incredibly common my experience is. I want this documentary to be not only my story, but also a collective story.
Women are here to stay in medicine and surgery. They have been entering medical school at rates equivalent to men since 2003, and at this point we have already trained an entire generation of surgeons who are women. However, we cannot sustain our workforce if women are not supported, experience burnout and leave medicine because they go into the operating room and experience microaggressions every day. We cannot provide equity to our patients until we address this issue of equity in our workforce.
In 2020, the pandemic made us all acutely aware of the health care disparities in our society. Ultimately, to change the bar on how we care for patients, we need to address the issue of equity in our workforce first.
For more information on the documentary, visit www.1001cuts.org.
For more information:
Sarah M. Temkin, MD, can be reached at sarah.temkin@gmail.com.
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