An exhibition at the Hunterian Museum in London is focusing on women in surgery, featuring portrait photography and personal reflections from female surgeons across the United Kingdom. The event, titled "Insight: Portraits of Women in Surgery," will run until mid-April and aims to showcase women from a variety of surgical specialties and career stages.
All participants are members of the Women in Surgery Network (WinS), a national group supporting women to pursue and advance their careers in surgery. Most portraits were captured by NHS trust staff, including clinical photographers from hospital Medical Photography departments, with settings that reflect each surgeon’s professional environment.
Manuela Cresswell, consultant ENT surgeon at University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust and the first female ENT consultant at Derriford Hospital, is among those featured. She commented: “Women only make up an estimate of 17% of surgeons worldwide, there is still work to be done in showing people that women can be a multitude of things, including mothers, wives and surgeons.”
Cresswell’s decision to become a surgeon was influenced by witnessing her parents respond as doctors to a road traffic accident when she was a teenager. “My parents, both doctors, were first at the scene, and watching their calm triage, teamwork, and difficult decision-making left a lasting impression on me. I realised I wanted the skills to help in moments of crisis.”
When asked about advice for future surgeons, Cresswell said: "You are never the finished product. Early in training it is easy to compare oneself to senior consultants and feel like an impostor, forgetting that their expertise has been shaped over decades. The focus should be on personal growth: working consistently, learning from excellent trainers, and practising self-kindness. Progress is built slowly through persistence and reflection. Learn to quiet down the inner voice that says ‘you are not good enough’."
Olivia Howe, a core surgical trainee at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust who also appears in the exhibition, shared how childhood reconstructive ear surgery inspired her career choice. Born with microtia and atresia resulting in a malformed right ear without an ear canal, she underwent several surgeries as a child.
“At 10 years old I decided to undergo surgery where they took cartilage from my rib and a skin graft from my leg to reconstruct my right ear," Howe explained. "I was so inspired by the surgeon, the day after my surgery I started operating on my teddy bears! I haven't really thought about any other career since.
“I had a total of three surgeries for my ear and in every one of them I was so touched by the expert care from all the clinicians involved, including the doctors, nurses, and the healthcare staff."
The exhibition is free to enter and remains open until Saturday 18 April 2026. Further information can be found at https://hunterianmuseum.org/exhibitions/insight-portraits-of-women-in-surgery
