1.2.2 Desiree Yap
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1.2.2 AWHN Conference 6 2010 Day 1 Chancellor 1 - Australian Federation of Medical Women Bridging Leadership Barriers Project
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1.2.2 Desiree Yap
- 1. Bridging Leadership Barriers Project Dr Desiree Yap: AFMW President On behalf of Dr Jillian Tomlinson Plastic Surgery Registrar Extraordinaire
- 2. Who are AFMW? • The Australian Federation of Medical Women (AFMW) was formed in 1927 to promote and develop the formal practice of medicine among women and to improve the health and welfare of all persons but especially women and children in the Australian community. • It is the only national body that exclusively represents the views of female medical practitioners, and is a non-profit, non- government organisation with affiliated state member bodies.
- 3. Acknowledgements • The Bridging Leadership Barriers project was made possible by a $89,000 grant from the Australian Government Office For Women’s 2007-08 Leadership and Development Program Grants. • This project was designed and managed by Dr Jillian Tomlinson, a Melbourne surgical trainee who received the Australian Virtual Centre for Leadership for Women’s 2009 National Leadership Achievement for Women Award for her work.
- 4. Paradox of Medical Privilege • It’s a dilemma • Medical women can be considered amongst the most privileged educated women in the world but sexism is as pervasive still in medicine as it is all areas of women’s lives • It also affects women doctors occupational health • It affects patient care
- 5. Paradox of Medical Privilege • Double disappointment when medical women behave more like their male colleagues than like ‘women’ • Incorporated into profession then some learn to practice like women • There is a tension within this • Within the profession, women struggle to find their humanity in the same way women struggle in all aspects of society • We can learn and support from each exploring this
- 7. Aim To empower medical women by fostering communication, networking, mentoring, respect, leadership ability and opportunities among doctors and medical students
- 8. Initiatives • $15,000 in leadership scholarships to assist medical women to attend the 2008 Medical Women’s International Association Western Pacific Regional Congress (MWIA WPRC) • Leadership and website skills training workshops • redevelopment of the AFMW website and creation of an online Leadership Portal • development of a quarterly electronic AFMW newsletter • creation of the AFMW Leadership Skills Database
- 9. Outcomes The project met all objectives, including: • improved communication networks among AFMW and its members with effective use of internet technologies and complete redevelopment of the AFMW website • enhanced opportunities for women in remote areas to communicate with their peers and participate in internet- based training • enhanced access to medical expertise (via the Leadership Skills Database) to assist AFMW to inform and drive health-policy development and service development • delivery of leadership and website skills training
- 11. Website training
- 12. Leadership Portal: Most viewed articles 2008-09 1. How To Negotiate: A Guide For Women In Medicine 2. Women As Medical Leaders – Opening Doors to Success 3. The Servant Leader 4. UNIFEM Young Women’s Leadership Forum 5. Assertiveness Techniques 6. Open Collections Program – Women In Medicine 7. Stress Management Among Junior Doctors 8. Effective Communication 9. Situational Leadership 10. Maintaining a Work-Life Balance
- 14. HON accreditation • In March 2009, the AFMW website gained Health On The Net (HON) Foundation accreditation and recognition. • Created in 1995, HON is a non-profit, non- governmental organisation, accredited to the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations. • HON Foundation promotes and guides disseminating useful and reliable online health information, and its appropriate and efficient use.
- 15. Website satisfaction survey “I love visiting the AFMW site to stay updated on upcoming events, as well as some of the inspiring and interesting articles on the site. I enjoy checking out some of the links available on Women’s Organisations to learn more about getting involved in representing women in the medical field and beyond.”
- 17. E-newsletter • improves communication within the AFMW, allowing leadership opportunities to be readily promoted and enhancing member participation in project development and policy creation. • primarily attracts medical women as subscribers, although a more latterly look shows that individuals in government and other Australian medical organisations and websites are now subscribing to receive AFMW news.
- 18. The multifaceted Bridging Leadership Barriers project • Has demonstrated that promoting women’s social inclusion and building women’s capacity to take on greater leadership responsibilities can contribute to development of public policy and service delivery • It has also given us the capacity to engage more widely with other health-related groups
- 19. The Paradox of Medical Privilege What she needs is a good route: An anecdote
- 20. Women in Surgery • ‘According to RACS in 2009, 7.8% of Active Fellows within the 9 specialties are female. • http://www.surgeons.org/Content/NavigationM Page 51
- 21. What about Academia? Monash University in1979, 50% of the graduates were women, and women have been consistently represented as the top student since the first graduating class. Appointments in the Monash Faculty of Medicine Nursing and Health Sciences in 2008 Level A (most junior): 1132 Women : 586 Men, Level B : 351 Women : 200 Men Level C (senior lecturer ): Women 154 :Men 162, Associate professor level: 38 Women : 79 Men Professor level (most senior academic): 21 Women : 93 Men. If we remove nursing, health sciences and social work from the statistics, the percentage of women in leadership roles in medicine drops even further. Associate Professor Jan Coles Monash University Medicine Nursing Health Sciences, unpublished data
- 22. What about Academia? Gender Bias in Medical Education and Research • Medical curriculum is “gendered”: reflects a perspective predominantly focused on the male patients. The bias has occurred in development and propagation of medical curricula and is in textbooks, research, etc. • In general, there has been an absence in medical curricula of concepts of gender as a determinant of health, an issue which is particularly relevant to women’s health and wellbeing • However, there has been some encouraging progress in this area
- 23. Medical Women and Leadership STOP PRESS!!! THE PIPELINE THEORY ISN’T WORKING!
- 24. Back to the Paradox • Compared to others in the women’s health world, medical women are perceived as having access to a lot of resources • However we are in a position were the status quo is vigorously defended using age-old techniques including gendered ones - territories and entitlement • In many areas of Medicine women are still encountering resistance and hostility • We like many others earn 0.8: $1 of men’s income
- 25. Strategic Alliances • AFMW would like to collaborate with bodies like AWHN because women doctors ARE more patient centered, adhere better to guidelines, do better complex consultations and have better outcomes Do more prevention/health promotion AND have greater patient satisfaction! • AFMW would like to collaborate with bodies like AWHN because women doctors in many areas are having their mental and occupational health affected because of the environment they work in
- 26. Strategic Alliances • We could collaborate to help facilitate medical culture change in the areas we have in common which still denigrate women BECAUSE women's health is critical to the health of Australia Thank you! www.afmw.org.au
Editor's Notes
- In addition to links with Australia women’s and medical organisations, AFMW also has links with Medical Women’s International Association and through it the - United Nations - World Health Organisation - Economic and Social Council of the United Nations - UNICEF - General Council of International Organisation of the Medical Sciences World Medical Association NB Victorian Medical Women’s Society formed by Dr Constance Stone 1896 who then built and worked for free in the Queen Victoria Hospital ‘By women for women’
- Here to present this on behalf of Jill Why isn’t she here? Her bosses couldn’t spare her from outpatients. I have been reflecting on the irony of this in terms of her own personal Leadership Barriers
- Where the culture of Medicine is still very male dominated in terms of the power structures (unlike my work environment) the usual strategies are used against women and probably other ‘minorities’ to limit their progress: Isolation Exclusion from those who can help Discounting achievements like this grant and award Strategic Alliances are away Medical Women can try to redress this problem.
- Where the culture of Medicine is still very male dominated in terms of the power structures (unlike my work environment) the usual strategies are used against women and probably other ‘minorities’ to limit their progress: Isolation Exclusion from those who can help Discounting achievements like this grant and award Strategic Alliances are away Medical Women can try to redress this problem.
- Given Jill can’t here today she has provided me with these slides and her talk. It seems ironic to me that Jill has despite her achievement been unable to overcome her own barriers. I wanter her to talk about her work because it really is her achievement and it was a great project, and I am disappointed she can’t be here today to present it herself. I think it would be wonderful if you could read her report which will be on the website and contact her about it. Let me briefly present it to you. After I present this project, and before we finish I would like to talk briefly talk about the situation for Medical women and why we need Strategic Alliances.
- The project was launched at the Medical Women’s International Association Western Pacific Regional Congress in Melbourne in October 2008. The Congress themes included health, human rights, gender and leadership. The leadership skills afternoon on October 17 was chaired by the President of the Medical Women’s International Association Dr Atsuko Heshiki and project designer Dr Jill Tomlinson. This session was attended by medical women from around the Asia-Pacific region, including 22 Australian medical women who received AFMW leadership scholarships as part of this project. Used it to get young doctors and students to get them to this international conference where they hear a whole lot of other stuff that they may not have otherwise engaged with And speaking of the greater organisation, we try to use that: we have med students on our State committees who we encourage to stay on and whom we mentor with the shadow portfolios of the various executive positions. In this way we hope to enhance their skills in being able to participate in the running and administration of organisations.
- The Federation’s website and communication strategies were completely redeveloped as part of this project. Website skills education was provided to AFMW members, teaching them how to upload content on a website. This education comprised small group skills training sessions, the development of a practice website that could be accessed online and an e-Book training manual. As a specific example of engaging the younger women in our group, the medical profession - how exactly to write a web page entry. This opens up such a capacity for enhanced communication
- A Leadership Portal was established on the AFMW website, which contains resources to assist medical women build their leadership capacity and skills. The most viewed articles during the project period are listed on this slide, and include topics such as negotiation, leadership, assertiveness, stress management, communication and work-life balance.
- The website received traffic from around Australia, particularly in the Eastern states. Traffic to the website comes from sources including search engines, direct traffic and referring sites.
- The results of a website satisfaction survey held in April 2009 demonstrates that the website has been very received by members. And by having it, we can introduce Medical women to the wider world of ‘health’ and other organisations they might not come into contact with – like AHWN!
- In addition to the website AFMW has also used Web 2.0 (“two point oh”) strategies to increase its communication with younger members. There are now Facebook groups for AFMW and for its state member organisations. This is a specific example of engaging the younger women in our group, the medical profession. We have had a vast increase in membership via facebook, particularly of students. We are using social networking to advertise events, with great success.
- AFMW has also established a quarterly e-newsletter.
- I am disappointed to say that the idea to deviate came to me after a ‘tea room incident’ was related to me last week. It seems in the Junior Medical Staff – I repeat ‘Junior’ medical staff – so the 30’s and under – in their common room… Vascular Registrar exclaims as he puts the phone down: ‘What she needs is a good root!’ The only female in the room clears her throat and raises her eyebrow and the only other person in the room (you guessed it, also male) titters… It transpired the Vascular Registrar had a difference of professional opinion to the Medical ‘Stroke’ Registrar as to the management of a patient who had had a stroke, and this was his frustrated response. I am not sure that would have been his solution had the Medical Registrar been male! I find it both astounding and incredibly disturbing, that in 2010, amongst young doctors, that this is the response, by a male in a professional disagreement with a female colleague, in an open forum at his workplace. Not after a few beers at the pub, or relating the incident at the footy, but thought to be acceptable to say in the common room of a major tertiary teaching hospital in Melbourne.
- So what is happening in Surgery? I ask myself why this is so different to my part of Medicine? And I think the answer is because in Obstetrics and Gynaecology, we have had the benefits of being in close contact with all you others involved in Women’s Health and it has largely changed out subculture. However, Women have continued to excel in their medical studies for nearly 130 years and yet they remain under-represented as leaders within the medical profession. Women have been consistently represented as the top student since the first graduating class – so we could speculate that the top end of the Medical town may be missing some of the best and brightest! Remember, 60% of medical graduates are women, 40% of doctors in training are women. So although the ‘pipeline’ theory isn’t working very well, women are in Medicine in the greatest numbers ever. So what’s the problem and how can you help accelerate change?
- References can be provided for these assertions!