Although women are making great strides as leaders in healthcare, there is still work to be done. Unconscious bias affects pay and promotion, and setting boundaries brings both advantages and disadvantages. Women must exhibit courage to break through corporate America's workaholic norms, setting an example for tomorrow's female leaders.
During a September webinar hosted by Becker's Hospital Review and sponsored by Intuitive, four female healthcare leaders discussed their experiences with unconscious bias, boundaries, courage and mentoring, seeking to empower and inspire the next generation of female leaders.
- Tanuja Damani, MD, surgical director of NYU Grossman School of Medicine in New York City
- Kate Henderson, president of regional hospitals and strategic community partnerships at Ascension Texas
- Marybeth Antone, associate vice president of operations at Silver Cross Hospital in New Lenox, Ill.
- Monica Reed, MD, Intuitive board member and former chief medical officer of Altamonte Springs, Fla.-based AdventHealth
- Darla Hutton, vice president of marketing and custom hospital analytics at Intuitive
Five key insights:
- Healthcare outperforms other industries in terms of female representation. According to McKinsey, women accounted for 66 percent of entry-level healthcare employees in 2020, compared with 49 percent in other industries. "Although that percentage declines to about 30 percent in more senior roles, healthcare is still outperforming," Ms. Hutton said. "That progress is encouraging."
- Unconscious bias exists, affecting pay and promotion for women. "Women are assigned communal traits of nurturing, while agentic traits like ambition are assigned to men," Dr. Damani said. "When women leaders display these agentic traits, there's a lot of incongruity, which leads to a negative perception about women. This affects salaries, promotions and opportunities."
- Setting boundaries is critical to personal happiness but can come with consequences. Women need to set time aside for things that are important to them, including self-care, family, friends and recreation. According to Ms. Henderson, who takes time for her husband and children, it's important to practice what you preach as a leader. "If I'm answering emails on vacation, the message I'm sending to folks is you should really still work when you're on vacation." However, she has experienced negative repercussions for setting boundaries. "For example, I was not invited to series of evening meetings that were directly related to my work," she recalled. "I was told that my colleagues knew I had boundaries for my domestic pursuits and didn't include me."
- Women require courage to fight for what they need. Most women in healthcare believe in their work, yet can feel pressure from colleagues to overwork. When Dr. Reed became exhausted during her career, she took a three-month sabbatical that was supported by her employer. "I was probably the first senior executive in my company's history to even suggest such a thing," she said. "It was very difficult, and it came with a price." On the one hand, when new opportunities came up, Dr. Reed felt that others wondered if she could handle the challenge. "At the same time, I had colleagues coming up to me saying, 'I can't believe you had the courage to do that. I'm so exhausted. I wish I could do that.'"
- Finding and being a coach, sponsor and mentor will help women help one another. While a coach is typically someone who instructs and a sponsor invests time, money or energy into an individual, a mentor is both, along with being a trusted confidant. "Mentorship is a deep relationship between two people," Ms. Antone said. "Usually someone with a lot more experience will not only show someone the ropes, but also open doors to relationships and be a cheerleader."
To register for upcoming webinars, click here.