Advancing women in medical leadership

To the Editor: We applaud the astute perspective of Teede in relation to gender equity in medical leadership.1

Organisational culture that promotes male leadership styles is self‐perpetuating and this has implications for our specialty of endocrinology, which is rapidly becoming “feminised”. About 80% of physician advanced trainees in endocrinology are female and yet only 20% of heads of endocrinology departments in Australian training hospitals are women (Royal Australasian College of Physicians Advanced Training in Endocrinology Program, unpublished data).

Waseem and colleagues2 documented significant under‐representation of women at higher academic levels in endocrinology societies internationally. Only 23% of full professors and 31% of board members were female. Women have fewer publications or research citations, but their skill sets are diverse and they bring value to executive boards through negotiation and problem solving skills. The historical biases around the expectations of women are perpetuated by male powerbrokers.

Unconscious bias can be subtle. Duma and colleagues3 reported that when introducing female speakers at an international conference, men were more likely to use a woman's first name alone, but male speakers were introduced with full professorial title and surname. This undervalues the women who already tend to underplay their own skills. Part‐time employment may be supported in theory, but it is left up to the woman to find a solution. Women fear that part‐time work may challenge perceptions of competence. A healthy endocrinology training scheme must support our significant female workforce and serve the 70% of endocrinology outpatients who are women.

We have wonderful male colleagues who are willing to support progress, but they may be deterred by the stigma attached to issues such as paternity leave. The current chair of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians Advanced Training Committee and the coordinator of the Advanced Training in Endocrinology Program are both women, so we do see a bright future ahead. This is an important issue for our patients, for women and for men.