Bias exists, but it's not always at the contract level. Woman surgeons often negotiate identical base salary, call pay, and reimbursement per RVU compared to their male partners. However, they encounter: -Worse referral patterns with the bigger/better cases going to the men and the simpler/more frustrating and time consuming/less operative cases going to the women. -Different expectations from patients who expect more time and compassion from the woman surgeon, thus impacting how many patients they see/cases they book, and how they're perceived (and reviewed online). -Different behavior expectations with smaller missteps having big impacts on reputations/referrals: Patients/students/peers/etc allow certain behavior to exist in men without it hurting their practice, but similar behavior from women (some of which was mandatory to survive old-school surgical training programs) can lead to them being labeled as difficult, etc, which impacts all the above-mentioned things, along with invitations to do combo cases, etc. -hospitals being more accommodating for male surgeons on all levels, including case scheduling, block time, etc. -Men being given more non-clinical leadership roles to increase their take-home pay and/or drive down their RVU target. -Massive differences in expectations outside of work. This point is quite complex and deserves its own stage, so I don't want to elaborate too much.