{"id":3834,"date":"2016-12-12T07:00:45","date_gmt":"2016-12-12T12:00:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/feminem.org\/?p=3834"},"modified":"2016-12-12T11:03:17","modified_gmt":"2016-12-12T16:03:17","slug":"pioneering-leadership","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/feminem.org\/2016\/12\/12\/pioneering-leadership\/","title":{"rendered":"Pioneering Leadership"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cIt is not easy to be a pioneer\u2026 but oh is it fascinating!\u201d \u2013 Elizabeth Blackwell<\/strong><\/p>\n

Our specialty requires leaders. We are sitting in a firestorm where non-physician interests, both within our profession and external to it, are pushing for and achieving control of our compensation, daily work experience, and our patients. Our institutions, companies, and organizations need to respond on our behalf. Whether you are in academics or community, in an independent, regional or national EM partnership, or a hospital or corporate employee, this is an essential time for you. The question is, who are our \u201cinstitutions, companies and organizations?\u201d They are us. But starkly missing when you look at the executive leaderships around you, are the women of Emergency Medicine.<\/p>\n

Emergency medicine residency programs are now graduating 36% women, EM\u2019s active physician workforce is 25% women and 32% of our academic EM faculty. However, as has been discussed broadly in academics, only 13% of our full professors are women. What may not have been expressed as directly is that our large organizations and companies show marginal percentages of senior leadership. By review of online accounts of senior leadership, it appears that percentages of women are as follows: ACEP board of directors (20%), ACEP chapter presidencies (19%), AAEM board of directors (18%), EMCARE executive and regional leadership (9%), USACS (13%), CEP America (10%), Team Health (8%). My former group, an independent democratic group of 40 docs, ranged between 0%-22% female leadership during my tenure.<\/p>\n

While these numbers may seem small, they are pretty inline with most boards in the non-medical \u201cbusiness world.\u201d The 2020 \u201cWomen on Boards Gender Diversity Index<\/a>\u201d of Fortune 1000 companies showed that 17.9% of corporate directors were women, and even though women in the companies \u201cdid not differ on the experience-based qualifications of board tenure or corporate tenure, women insiders (did) hold fewer directorships of other corporations, hold less powerful corporate titles, occupy disproportionately more staff functions, are less likely to be top earners of the corporation, and earn considerably less than men inside directors.\u201d<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not going to wax poetically or politically on why<\/em> women are not represented in leadership except to quote international business consultant Whittenberg-Cox: \u201cThe real reasons that women are not moving up do not lie primarily with women. They are embedded in systems that have evolved over decades and reflect the values, motivations and views of a male majority. None of this is done intentionally or even consciously. It is simply the result of history and corporate evolutions. But so long as these issues remain unseen, they form an intractable barrier to a more inclusive work environment.\u201d[1]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

What I do<\/em> want to talk about it is why<\/em> it is important to get our women to step into leadership roles. Here are a few thoughts:<\/p>\n