For the second year in a row, the American College of Radiology will be promoting #HeForShe, a social media push for gender equality, at its annual conference this May in Washington, D.C.
The solidarity movement was pioneered by the United Nations Women and promotes equality between sexes in healthcare, education, politics, identity, violence and workplaces, Amy Patel, MD, a radiology instructor at Harvard Medical, wrote in an ACR release. “As a result, this effort has now permeated into medicine with subspecialities such as surgery and radiology taking a stand and promoting gender equality at specialty society meetings and on social media.”
Patel said previous attendees of ACR’s yearly symposium might recognize the hashtag from emails and tweets, but that this year the College is making further efforts to publicize the movement.
Both female and male radiologists—or #radxx adn #radxy clinicians, as Patel calls them—are encouraged to snap selfies and post them on social media sites like Instagram and Facebook with the hashtags #ACR2018 and #HeForShe. She said that by distributing the information via social channels, participants will be able to pledge their support while sharing their own stories of gender oppression and how #HeForShe has made a difference in their lives.
“We want to attract, train and support radiology professionals who are responsible to the needs of each other and to the needs of our diverse patients,” she wrote. “It starts by taking action right now to create a gender-equal world.”
Patel said members of the ACR and Commission for Women and Diversity will be present in Washington to distribute stickers, signs and other materials to conference attendees.
“We will only move the needle on creating the diverse specialty our patients deserve if we are willing to dismantle the barriers that hold us back and walk boldly forward, together,” she wrote.
After graduating from Indiana University-Bloomington with a bachelor’s in journalism, Anicka joined TriMed’s Chicago team in 2017 covering cardiology. Close to her heart is long-form journalism, Pilot G-2 pens, dark chocolate and her dog Harper Lee.