Editorial
 Syah BahariSICOT Editorial Secretary - Seremban, Malaysia |  Ahmed H. AbdelazeemSICOT Newsletter Editorial Board Member - Cairo, Egypt |
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year 2018!
On the eve of a new year, SICOT and its Newsletter Editorial Board have decided to introduce an interesting special volume to be their New Year’s present to the worldwide orthopaedic community. We thought about various subjects as the theme of this special issue. We searched and reviewed “unusual” fields, thinking about what would be interesting and attractive. Finally, we chose to discuss “half of our community problems”, the “female orthopaedic surgeon problems” in our “male-dominated field”. We were looking for a memorable and outstanding issue covering all aspects of a “woman orthopaedist’s” life.
You will read in this issue interesting short articles written by different female orthopaedic surgeons from different parts of the world sharing their unforgettable and remarkable experiences in this “harsh” job. Starting from how they were convinced to enter the orthopaedics world, how they worked hard to prove themselves and overcome the difficulties of balancing family and their patients at the same time.
Orthopaedic surgery is still, up till now, the most dominant male surgical community, lagging back from other, or even “harsher” male dominant surgical specialties such as urosurgery and neurosurgery. Several reasons exist for this. Dr Emily K. Miller, from the United States, who is considered to be the most interested in this field during this decade, has published in the last few years several posters, articles as well as an e-book about the reasons for this “female fear”. In this issue, she has shared her thoughts on where we are now regarding women in the orthopaedic surgical field.
Also in this issue, we have focused on peculiar subjects and asked female surgeons to write about their experience in it. Dr Ratna Johari has shared her opinion on “Women in Orthopaedics”. Prof Patricia Fucs, who is the President of the Brazilian Society of Orthopaedics and Traumatology (SBOT) has shared her thoughts on leading the SBOT, the 3rd largest orthopaedic association in the world. Dr Temiloluwa Olufemi, who is one of three practising female Nigerian surgeons, has shared her memorable experience of winning a prize from SICOT and how this changed and affected her future plans.
Furthermore, we have invited five successful female surgeons from different countries representing different cultural backgrounds to write and introduce their story:
Dr Amparo Gomez from Colombia
Dr Anna K. Ekman from Sweden
Dr Ruba Jamalallail from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
Dr Peace Amaraegbulam from Nigeria
Dr Emma Taylor from the United Kingdom
These surgeons represent not only different cultures and countries, but also different levels of experience ranging from residents to senior consultants.
We hope that this special volume will be an enjoyable and interesting read.
