Gender Equity in Medicine – What is it & Why Does it Matter?

Coda Change

In this cross over chat between Medical Mums and Coda, Dr Chris Bowles & A/Prof Nada Hamad discuss gender equity – What is it and why does it matter?

Chris and Nada take a deep dive into gender equity in medicine, the impact of the pandemic and the possible solutions.

First, they discuss the difference between gender equity and equality. Equality is the act of treating everyone the same. Whereas equity, focuses on levelling the playing field so that there is more representation and participation. This includes asking questions such as why inequity exists? And why aren’t women progressing?

Evidently, women experience gender inequity at different times of their career. It may be after they’ve had children, or it may be when they want to step up and take on leadership roles.

What is most obvious however, is that the impact of gender inequity in medicine extends far past the individual. Gender inequity impacts how we look after female patients, what kinds of questions we ask in research and how we perform and apply that research in the context of women’s healthcare.

Chris and Nada discuss what needs to happen to make the system more accommodating.

This includes implicit bias training, intersectionality training and leadership training. Investment in leadership skills and training is crucial. We can have all of the right policies in place, however if leadership doesn’t set the standard to encourage uptake, inequity will always exist.

Join Emergency & Trauma physician, Dr Chris Bowles and Haematologist, Dr Nada Hamad, as they discuss gender inequity in medicine. They inspire us to identify and challenge the inequity that exists today.

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