Media Release

QEH Deputy Medical Director featured in national Royal College of Surgeons exhibition celebrating women in surgery

Communications Teamby
The QEH’s Deputy Medical Director and Consultant Vascular Surgeon, Professor Felicity Meyer, is among the surgeons featured in a major new national exhibition celebrating the contribution of women working in surgery across the UK.
Professor Felicity Meyer, The QEH’s Deputy Medical Director

Insight: Portraits of Women in Surgery opens on Friday 6 February at the Hunterian Museum, housed within the Royal College of Surgeons of England, and runs until Saturday 18 April 2026.

Open throughout International Women’s Month and beyond, the exhibition offers an intimate and contemporary look at surgical life today, highlighting both progress and persistent inequality within the profession.

The exhibition brings together women surgeons from different specialties, career stages and regions.

All those featured are members of the Women in Surgery Network (WinS) — a national initiative dedicated to encouraging and supporting women to fulfil their surgical career ambitions.

Professor Meyer features in the exhibition in her role as Chair of the Women in Surgery Forum at RCS England, to which she was elected in 2024. She also acts as a flexible working advisor to RCS England, advocating for more inclusive and supportive training and working practices across surgery.

Despite women now making up more than half of doctors in the UK, only around 17% of consultant surgeons are women, with women accounting for 36% of doctors in surgical training. These issues are explored through portrait photography and first-person reflection, with surgeons choosing how they wish to be portrayed and photographed in environments reflective of their work.

Professor Meyer said: “A career in surgery is very fulfilling, but there are still so many barriers to women who want to make it their profession. The exhibition showcases brilliant surgical colleagues who have challenged stereotypes and stigma against women in surgery, and persevered to change lives.

“Women in Surgery continues to highlight the importance of diversity and to challenge the government and the NHS to prioritise flexible, supportive and inclusive training and working practices.”

Entry to the Hunterian Museum is free. The exhibition is open Wednesdays to Saturdays, 10am to 5pm.

Ends. Notes to editors; For media enquiries only, please contact Communications Team, media.enquiries@qehkl.nhs.uk or 01553 613216. For all other enquiries, please contact QEH Switchboard on 01553 613613.

RCS England press office: telephone: 020 7869 6053/6054/6060; email: pressoffice@rcseng.ac.uk; out-of-hours media enquiries: 0207 869 6056. 

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