Skip to main content

Main menu

  • Home
  • Our journals
    • Clinical Medicine
    • Future Healthcare Journal
  • Subject collections
  • About the RCP
  • Contact us

Future Healthcare Journal

  • FHJ Home
  • Content
    • Current
    • Ahead of print
    • Archive
  • Author guidance
    • Instructions for authors
    • Submit online
  • About FHJ
    • Scope
    • Editorial board
    • Policies
    • Information for reviewers
    • Advertising

User menu

  • Log in

Search

  • Advanced search
RCP Journals
Home
  • Log in
  • Home
  • Our journals
    • Clinical Medicine
    • Future Healthcare Journal
  • Subject collections
  • About the RCP
  • Contact us
Advanced

Future Healthcare Journal

futurehosp Logo
  • FHJ Home
  • Content
    • Current
    • Ahead of print
    • Archive
  • Author guidance
    • Instructions for authors
    • Submit online
  • About FHJ
    • Scope
    • Editorial board
    • Policies
    • Information for reviewers
    • Advertising

Women empowering women

Sarah Faloon, May Yan and Clare Sarb
Download PDF
DOI: https://doi.org/10.7861/fhj.7.1.s93
Future Healthc J February 2020
Sarah Faloon
ASandwell and West Birmingham Hospital NHS Trust, Birmingham, UK
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
May Yan
ASandwell and West Birmingham Hospital NHS Trust, Birmingham, UK
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Clare Sarb
ASandwell and West Birmingham Hospital NHS Trust, Birmingham, UK
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • Article
  • Info & Metrics
Loading

Introduction

Seventy-seven per cent of NHS workers are female, yet only 37% are in senior positions.1 Women have represented the majority of medical school cohorts for over a decade, but this is not translating into increased numbers of women in consultant or leadership roles. Women comprise only 36% of consultants, 13% of surgeons and 25% of medical directors.1–3

Gender balance at the top leads to effective financial and quality performance, and there is clear evidence the culture of any organisation is connected to the behaviours of the board and senior leaders.4 Women bring unique qualities that are key to the balance of any team.

Materials and methods

To address this issue a deputy medical director, RCP tutor and core medical trainee at Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS Trust designed a 1-day national free conference aimed at medical female doctors entitled ‘Women Empowering Women’ to enable, inspire and empower women.

The day involved talks from women in leadership roles, including the president of the Medical Women's Federation, and workshops such as Research and Academia, Management and Leadership and Teaching and Education. Further workshops focused on maternity issues, LTFT working, and self-care. A workshop addressing inappropriate behaviour in the workplace was also very popular. The delegates overwhelmingly reported a day such as this was desperately needed.

The key aspects we aimed to address included:

  • role-modeling – showcasing individuals in senior leadership positions and sharing their journey: ‘If you can see it, you can be it’

  • processes – maternity rights to application of jobs were addressed

  • mindset – positivity, the importance of self-care and removing imposter syndrome mentality.

110 women attended, ranging from FY1 to consultant level. A survey was performed to assess how women felt about key issues such as gender balance, applying for senior leadership roles and sexual harassment in the workplace.

Results and discussion

Highlights of the data showed:

  • 25% had been discouraged to apply for a senior leadership role

  • 58% felt they were not achieving work-life balance. Examples included challenges with childcare, hobbies and self-care

  • 70% felt they were underperforming in their careers due to the many challenges they faced including childcare, illness and exams

  • 56% felt there was a lack of women in senior leadership roles

  • 47% have had sexual comments and inappropriate behaviour from colleagues and seniors in the workplace and 73% have had this behaviour from patients

  • 66% did not escalate these issues due to fear of potential repercussions or not being taken seriously.

There remains a multitude of issues facing women working in the NHS today. To address this, many initiatives are being generated at out trust including establishing a Women's Network, a leadership mentoring scheme and educational sessions on inappropriate workplace behaviours and how to escalate.

Conclusion

If we are to tackle issues, such as lack of women in senior leadership positions and sexual harassment in the workplace, then such innovative days must be an embedded feature within each organisation as a positive step forward to rectifying this imbalance.

Conflicts of interest

None declared.

  • © Royal College of Physicians 2020. All rights reserved.

References

  1. ↵
    1. NHS digital
    . Narrowing of NHS gender divide but men still the majority in senior roles. NHS, 2018. www.digital.nhs.uk/news-and-events/latest-news/narrowing-of-nhs-gender-divide-but-men-still-the-majority-in-senior-roles [Accessed 09 September 2019].
  2. ↵
    1. Royal College of Surgeons
    . Statistics: Women in Surgery. RCS. www.rcseng.ac.uk/careers-in-surgery/women-in-surgery/statistics [Accessed 9 September 2019].
  3. ↵
    1. Rimmer A
    . Five facts on women in NHS leadership roles. BMJ 2017;357:j1701.
    OpenUrlAbstract/FREE Full Text
  4. ↵
    1. Gipson AN
    , Pfaff DL, Mendelsohn DB, Catenacci LT, Burke WW. Women and leadership: Selection, development, leadership style, and performance. J Appl Behav Sci 2017;53:32–65.
    OpenUrl
Back to top
Previous articleNext article

Article Tools

Download PDF
Article Alerts
Sign In to Email Alerts with your Email Address
Citation Tools
Women empowering women
Sarah Faloon, May Yan, Clare Sarb
Future Healthc J Feb 2020, 7 (Suppl 1) s93; DOI: 10.7861/fhj.7.1.s93

Citation Manager Formats

  • BibTeX
  • Bookends
  • EasyBib
  • EndNote (tagged)
  • EndNote 8 (xml)
  • Medlars
  • Mendeley
  • Papers
  • RefWorks Tagged
  • Ref Manager
  • RIS
  • Zotero
Share
Women empowering women
Sarah Faloon, May Yan, Clare Sarb
Future Healthc J Feb 2020, 7 (Suppl 1) s93; DOI: 10.7861/fhj.7.1.s93
del.icio.us logo Digg logo Reddit logo Twitter logo Facebook logo Google logo Mendeley logo
  • Tweet Widget
  • Facebook Like
  • Google Plus One

Jump to section

  • Article
    • Introduction
    • Materials and methods
    • Results and discussion
    • Conclusion
    • Conflicts of interest
    • References
  • Info & Metrics

Related Articles

  • No related articles found.
  • Google Scholar

Cited By...

  • No citing articles found.
  • Google Scholar

More in this TOC Section

  • Millennial learners – a blended approach to simulation for sepsis
  • Preparing to be the medical registrar on call: the evolution of a simulation programme
  • Mind wandering affects learning – students’ perspective
Show more Education, Training and medical professionalism

Similar Articles

FAQs

  • Difficulty logging in.

There is currently no login required to access the journals. Please go to the home page and simply click on the edition that you wish to read. If you are still unable to access the content you require, please let us know through the 'Contact us' page.

  • Can't find the CME questionnaire.

The read-only self-assessment questionnaire (SAQ) can be found after the CME section in each edition of Clinical Medicine. RCP members and fellows (using their login details for the main RCP website) are able to access the full SAQ with answers and are awarded 2 CPD points upon successful (8/10) completion from:  https://cme.rcplondon.ac.uk

Navigate this Journal

  • Journal Home
  • Current Issue
  • Ahead of Print
  • Archive

Related Links

  • ClinMed - Home
  • FHJ - Home

Other Services

  • Advertising
futurehosp Footer Logo
  • Home
  • Journals
  • Contact us
  • Advertise
HighWire Press, Inc.

Follow Us:

  • Follow HighWire Origins on Twitter
  • Visit HighWire Origins on Facebook

Copyright © 2021 by the Royal College of Physicians