and finally a reminder that if you see it you can be it despite the rising number of women entering medical professions surgical Specialties are still largely male dominated that gender gap is widest in the neurosurgery field but at JFK Medical Center in Edison female neurosurgeons are inspiring other young women to walk the same path Raven Santana has the story you shouldn't do this if you want to have a family it's a seven year residency you know you you want to have kids someday and this is not really conducive to that Dr yavinia SharkMan Director of Education at JFK University Medical Center's Neuroscience Institute knows firsthand what it feels like to be counted out because she's a woman the neurosurgeon who was born in Russia moved to the U.S when she was eight she went to Washington University in St Louis Missouri for medical school and then NYU for residency Dr schechtman says she always wanted to be a neurosurgeon and wanted to create a path for other women she chose not to listen to the naysayers and went on to have three children and pursue a career she loves I had two of them in residency during my two Chief years and then I had my littlest one um you know as an attendant traditionally women are underrepresented in fields such as surgery neurosurgery in particular so there are 300 or so female board-certified neurosurgeons in the U.S and about 3 000 or so or so males so I think it's really important that we're not missing out on the talent I think what makes it hard is just that you know the idea that you can juggle your family and your career in my training we had one female attending out of 22. uh so didn't necessarily have kind of that role model but I think that's changing as more of my co-residents were female and now here at JFK we have three female neurosurgeons out of the six of us Dr schechterman says in addition to diversity having more women in the neurosurgeon Fields can also impact patients in a number of ways I feel like sometimes female patients prefer a female doctor oftentimes it can be for religious reasons for example I have some Muslim patients who just prefer a female surgeon for modesty reasons so there's definitely an element of that and if those patients feel more comfortable each language has its own uh flavor to it and has its own cultural nuances and when you were able to speak that patient's language you're able to connect with them at a completely different level harsimran panason is a fourth year medical student the 27 year old was born in India and is a first generation American first generation college student and and the first one in her family to become a physician she is also the founder and president of women in surgery organization at a medical school and says it's important to have a place for female doctors to lean on each other when I was telling my other attendings or doctors that I want to be a surgeon they would look at me like oh you don't have that personality you're so sweet and bubbly you're not going to be able to hold up to the grit of what it requires to be a surgeon and when I was finally in my surgical clerkship I was able to meet more mentors in surgery they were able to show me how strong or resilient they were I definitely encountered on several occasions people mostly other trainees other residents in the field basically be like surgery with women in it no no that's not a thing surgery really went downhill when we started taking women and so and that was a frequent sentiment I would hear neurosurgeon Dr Asha Iyer is a California girl born and bred she said she always wanted to be a neurosurgeon she credits female mentorship for reaching her goals and Dr Iyer says representation is critical when it comes to more women feeling confident about becoming neurosurgeons I think it's very exciting for them and and then to hear a little bit of our personal stories and say yes and they have a family they have this we you know I think it's it makes their dreams a lot more tangible and attainable for NJ Spotlight news I'm Raven Santana [Music÷}