Take part in the #NYerORCoverChallenge started by @susieQP8 and send us yours! Overwhelming response so far @NewYorker @WomenSurgeons pic.twitter.com/MB06mycRGx
— malika favre (@malikafavre) April 10, 2017
When artist Malika Favre designed the cover image for the recent issue of The New Yorker, she was hoping to capture a patient's feeling of vulnerability. But what Dr. Susan Pitt saw when she looked at that cover was strength. Now, she and other women around the world are recreating that image to celebrate diversity and the growing number of female surgeons in a traditionally male-dominated field.
Dr. Pitt, an endocrine surgeon at the Univeristy of Wisconsin, was on her way to an annual meeting of the American Association of Endocrine Surgeons when she came across the New Yorker cover. At the conference, she asked three other women surgeons to help her replicate the image which she then shared on Twitter along with the hashtag #ILookLikeASurgeon.
@NewYorker @TheAAES @WomenSurgeons @womeninsurgery @LoggheMD @KickAsana #ILookLikeASurgeon #AAES2017 pic.twitter.com/dhdGd2HKqs
— Susan Pitt (@susieQP8) April 4, 2017
Pitt sent out another asking other women in surgery to post their own. At the time, Pitt could not have predicted that her tweet would spark a movement, but that's exactly what it did.
"I hope to open people’s eyes and minds that women can be surgeons and anything else they want to be," she told BuzzFeed, adding that it feels like a “punch in the gut” when people assume women in hospitals are not the doctors.
Before long, female surgeons across the U.S. began accepting Pitt's challenge:
Challenge accepted @susieQP8! @NewYorker #ILookLikeASurgeon 😷cover photo 📷 #IRL #LikeALadyDoc #SurgTweeting #TheFutureIsFemale #Residents pic.twitter.com/GD2ERLuzjk
— Marissa Boeck MD MPH (@KickAsana) April 5, 2017
Thanks for the challenge! pic.twitter.com/c7dj38vseJ
— Heather Yeo MD (@heatheryeomd) April 6, 2017
The idea then spread around the world with women surgeons in Mexico, Brazil, Saudi Arabia and Istanbul joining in.
. @NewYorker Cover challenge! @KickAsana kicks Where's yours? #ILookLikeASurgeon @susieQP8 @WomenSurgeons all the way from Saudi Arabia🇸🇦 pic.twitter.com/TdZNYqJiio
— Haneen Gomawi (@DrGomawi) April 6, 2017
https://instagram.com/p/BStq__1BLIe/?hidecaption=true
Very proud of my team of #womensurgeons @incmnszmx #NYerORCoverChallenge in Mexico City! #ILookLikeASurgeon @ADRITOR pic.twitter.com/rOQR4JjKwI
— Mauricio Sierra M.D. (@DrMSierra) April 7, 2017
@WomenSurgeons #ILookLikeASurgeon @NewYorker
— Ju Oliveira (@jumlo) April 8, 2017
😎😍💪
Trabalhando em família! pic.twitter.com/qKnbg0U3fy
Women make up only about 19 percent of surgeons in the U.S. according to the American Medical Association. Pitt is hoping change that and inspire the next generation to see what they can be.
@susieQP8 The next generation of @UMichSurgery wanted to join the #NYerORCoverChallenge. #ILookLikeASurgeon @spshubeck pic.twitter.com/kWm5rBWpzw
— Arielle Kanters (@arikanters) April 11, 2017