A senior surgeon has shed an ugly light on gender equality in the medical profession.

Vascular surgeon Dr Gabrielle McMullin says women wanting to protect their surgical careers find themselves “complying with requests” for sex from male colleagues, rather than reporting the harassment.

Dr McMullin made the comments following the launch of a book she co-authored - Pathways to Gender Equality; The Role of Merit and Quotas - at Parliament House in Sydney on Friday night.

Dr McMullin gave the reluctant and deeply troubling message to women entering medicine, warning them early that sexual harassment in hospitals is rife.

She said that for many trainees, giving in to sexual harassment is an easier path than pursuing the perpetrators, due to systemic sexism the male-dominated surgical arena.

She was questioned about the comments on Monday night, and resolutely stood by her claim. 

Dr McMullin told the ABC a disturbing story about a neurosurgical trainee in Melbourne named Caroline.

“Caroline was ... the daughter that you'd wish to have. She excelled at school. What she always wanted to be was a neurosurgeon,” she said.

“At the hospital Caroline ended up training at, one surgeon took her under his wing. But things got uncomfortable.

“He kept asking her back to his rooms after hours. But after this one particularly long [work] session, she felt it was rude to refuse and they ended up back in his rooms, where, of course, it was dark and there was nobody else around, and he sexually assaulted her.

“She was horrified. She ran out of the office. She didn't tell anyone.”

Dr McMullin said Caroline only complained when the surgeon began to give her bad reports, and she risked failing after years of hard work.

After a drawn-out and expensive legal battle, Caroline won.

“However, despite that victory, she has never been appointed to a public position in a hospital in Australasia,” Dr McMullin said.

“Her career was ruined by this one guy asking for sex on this night.

“Realistically, she would have been much better to have given him a blow job on that night.

“The worst thing you could possibly do is to complain to the supervising body, because then, as in Caroline's position, you can be sure that you will never be appointed to a major public hospital.”

Despite women making up the majority of medical students in Australia and the United Kingdom, Dr McMullin warns that gaining entry into medicine for women is really a door to a career marred by rampant sexism, in which they had to be vigilant.

“We need to teach our trainees never to put themselves in a vulnerable position like that, no matter how nice, married and well-meaning the man seems,” she said.