If you look around the healthcare workforce, what do you see? The chances are that you notice more women than men in the vast majority of cases. Now, let’s head into the healthcare boardroom. If you expect to see the same scenario, then you’re sorely mistaken. As of writing, women hold just 25% of leadership roles in the healthcare sphere.
For the majority of us, that fact is sadly not altogether surprising, and it’s a trend that’s evident across industries. A lot has changed for modern women in some ways, but in leadership, we’re still very much reading from the same old script.
This is endlessly frustrating, especially in an area like healthcare, where it’s widely known that increases in female leadership can lead to improvements in performance and care. In this article, we’re going to consider those potential benefits and uncover precisely why we need more women in healthcare leadership right now.
# 1 – Representing the Workforce
Remember when we mentioned that women account for just 25% of healthcare leadership roles? Well, that fact becomes even more shocking when you consider that they also make up around 70% of the healthcare workforce on the whole. In fact, in areas like midwifery and nursing, an astounding 90% of employees are female.
So what does this mean? Well, quite simply, it highlights the fact that women in healthcare are currently working under a leadership team that simply doesn’t represent them, or understand what they need.
This quickly leads to problematic setbacks, including a lack of flexible work for mothers and an overarching lack of development opportunities designed with that female workforce in mind. If more women were filling those leadership roles, then a lot of experts suggest that many of these barriers could be removed.
# 2 – Improving Organisational Outcomes
Women in healthcare do an amazing job thanks to their attention to detail when it comes to everything from making patients comfortable to choosing the best quality scrubs for everyday clinical work. The female mind really does leave no stone unturned, and there are plenty of studies out there that highlight just how much this attention-centric focus could end up improving organisational outcomes at a higher level.
For instance, studies have found an undeniable correlation between female management and financial performance, which, in hard-pressed healthcare settings, is a benefit well worth backing. And that’s not all. Broadly speaking, gender diverse teams also tend to increase innovation and improve workplace cultures to no small degree.
# 3 – Addressing Gender Disparities
Having more women in healthcare leadership can also generally help towards addressing gender disparities that are still very much prevalent in the industry today. The British Medical Association has particularly found that more women in leadership could address ongoing disparities such as gender pay gaps and increased barriers to promotion.
These are issues that male leadership teams simply haven’t addressed until now, highlighting the need for female leaders to come on board and make a genuine difference to female-heavy workforces.
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