With the world’s attention turned to COVID-19 and its devastating (and as yet unknown) consequences, it’s easy to allow the current crisis to delay progress on the work that many of us have been leading for decades to champion gender equity and anti-racism. But we cannot allow this pandemic to rescind our gains. Indeed, if ever there was a time to double-down on these efforts, it’s now—at a time when the consequences of years of sedate headway are manifesting through disproportionate hardship for women and people of color.
While we recognize that our nation’s healthcare system is reeling from the financial upheaval of COVID-19, there are immediate and low-costs steps institutions can take now to send a powerful message that women and people of color belong. Together, with longer-term work focused on dismantling structural inequities, we can create systems that are fully inclusive at every level.
Here are three steps healthcare executives can take today to change culture.
1. Change Your Language
A study of the use of the word “chairman” in official websites of six medical specialties was determined to be pervasive. While these male-dominated surgical specialties use “chairman” most frequently, specialties that boast greater numbers of women are still biased toward the use of gendered language. Though something like a title may seem like a minor infraction, the message is clear: leaders in medicine are men. Women need not apply.
This language permeates everything, from how women are introduced at conferences to signage in boardrooms and buildings, offering glaring reminders that women are the exception.
A solution is to start partnering with communications teams to audit the language that appears on websites, materials, signage and in speeches to ensure that all genders are reflected and welcomed in the discourse.
2. Opt for Inclusive Imagery
Many organizations hang pictures on their walls of important leaders, which are often white men. Although well-intentioned, these areas, sometimes referred to as “dude walls,” shape people’s perceptions of their own sense of belonging. These visual cues send a powerful message. They may acknowledge our past, but they have the consequence of celebrating the contributions of largely white males and thus ignoring those of women and Black people. as well as elevate values of anti-sexism and anti-racism.
3. Open the Door
Representation matters. In healthcare, the number of women drops at senior leadership levels, especially for women of color, according to a recent McKinsey & Company report. For underrepresented people to be included in leadership, people in positions of influence must intentionally bring them to the table. Research highlighted in a 2019 Harvard Business Review article has shown a direct correlation between the sponsorship of women and the number of women in the C-suite.
Healthcare leadership, and specifically academic medicine, has a strong tradition of hierarchy, competition and male dominance. An intentional culture shift is needed. Sponsoring a woman of color, a veteran or a woman with a disability can drive inclusion and help address issues of conscious and unconscious bias. According to the United Nations 2020 report on gender inequalities, nearly nine out of 10 women demonstrate at least one compelling bias against women. That is why it’s essential that we bring a broader range of ideas and identities into our decision-making.
Today’s COVID-19 pandemic is an opportunity to catalyze action on equity. Because inclusive, equitable and respectful environments don’t just happen; they’re cultivated through the actions of leaders who both set expectations of and model inclusive behavior.
Mary I. O’Connor, MD, is chair of Movement is Life, and professor of Orthopaedics and Rehabilitation at Yale School of Medicine (@MaryOConnorMD). Sheila Dugan, MD, is professor and interim chair of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at the Rush University System for Health in Chicago, a Carol Emmott Fellow, and chair of the Rush Women’s Leadership Council. Ije-Enu Udeze Nwosu, is a social equity futurist, a healthcare executive with Kaiser Permanente, and a Carol Emmott Fellow (@ijespeaks).