The Surgeon

Leslie Wolfe’s The Surgeon uses the parallel settings of medicine and politics to explore how professional ambition intersects with gender dynamics and morality. The novel depicts both the operating room and the state’s attorney’s office as high-stakes, male-dominated arenas where power is fiercely contested. Dr. Anne Wiley, a respected cardiothoracic surgeon, confronts overt misogyny from her colleague, Dr. Robert Bolger, who questions if her “pretty little hands [are] tired” during a critical procedure (10). This interaction reflects documented gender disparities in medicine. The American Medical Women’s Association (AMWA) reported the following in September 2025:

Despite progress in medicine, women remain significantly underrepresented in surgical specialties, comprising less than 20% of permanent faculty and only 7.7% of surgical chairs. […] [S]ystemic gender bias, cultural norms, and institutional barriers continue to hinder women’s entry and advancement in surgery (Mallory Johnson, Bethany Fenton, Meghan Etsey, Vaishnavi Patel, DO on behalf of AMWA’s Gender Equity Taskforce. “Barriers to the Scalpel: Why Women Remain Underrepresented in Surgery.” AMWA, 2025).

Bolger’s behavior in The Surgeon isn’t just a personal conflict but an example of the systemic sexism that women face in such professions. This theme is mirrored in the novel’s political subplot, in which Assistant State’s Attorney