Doctors have been urged to call out the microaggressions, the ‘subtle snubs, slights and insults’ routinely directed at female colleagues.

These subtle forms of discrimination are embedded in the medical culture and are frequently experienced by women and minority groups, doctors write in a JAMA Surgery special communication.

Raising awareness and taking action over microaggressions is critically needed to foster a more accepting culture in medicine and surgery, they say.

“Unlike macroaggressions — or racism and misogyny — that occur at systematic and structural levels, microaggressions happen at a more interpersonal and private level,” say Dr Arghavan Salles, from Washington University in Missouri, US, and colleagues.