Twelve tips for developing and running a successful women’s group in international academic medicine

Abstract

Gender inequity in academic medicine remains an important issue worldwide. While institutional programs and policies can help promote equity in recruitment, retention, scholarship, promotion, and leadership, they often do not address the physical and social isolation that many women in international academic medicine face. Creating networking opportunities through building women’s groups can provide a personal and professional support structure that decreases isolation and promotes the advancement of women. Based on a multidisciplinary literature review on change processes, group formation, and women’s empowerment, as well as lessons learned from personal experience, we offer 12 tips to successfully create, maintain, and support physician women’s groups, employing Kotter’s change-management framework. We believe that these groups can provide a structured platform for networking opportunities to advance women physicians in academic medicine worldwide.

Disclosure statement

The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of this article.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Halah Ibrahim

Halah Ibrahim, MD, MEHP, is a Senior Consultant in the Department of Internal Medicine at Sheikh Khalifa Medical City, United Arab Emirates. She is co-founder of a women physicians group.

Dora J. Stadler

Dora J. Stadler, MD, is a Clinical Assistant Professor, Department of Medicine, Weill Cornell Medicine – Qatar.

Sophia Archuleta

Sophia Archuleta, MD, is an Associate Professor, Department of Medicine, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore, and Head, Division of Infectious Diseases, National University Hospital, Singapore. She is the founder of WISH (Women in Science & Healthcare) at the National University Health System.

Pascale Anglade

Pascale Anglade, MD, MBA, is a Consultant Gastroenterologist at Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, and Clinical Assistant Professor, Department of Medicine, Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, USA. She is co-founder of a women physicians group.

Joseph Cofrancesco

Joseph Cofrancesco, Jr MD, MPH, is an Associate Professor of Medicine and the Director of the Johns Hopkins Institute for Excellence in Education. He is also the Director of the Johns Hopkins General Internal Medicine Clinician-Educator Mentoring and Scholarship Program (CEMSP), Baltimore, Maryland, USA.