A lack of female leaders in radiology could be combated by earlier exposure to leadership opportunities, careful communication and a concerted effort by men in the field, according to an editorial published in the Journal of the American College of Radiology this week.
Like most medical specialties, radiology has long faced a shortage of women, Carolyn C. Meltzer, MD, of Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta, Georgia, wrote. The American College of Radiology presented some proof that might be turning around with two announcements at its latest annual meeting: the appointment of Geraldine B. McGinty, MD, MBA, as the ACR’s first board chair and Ruth C. Carlos, MD, MS, as the JACR’s first female editor-in-chief.
“These two highly capable colleagues are indeed deserving and promise to be transformative leaders in their new roles,” Meltzer said. “Yet should we be still celebrating such ‘firsts’ at this point in our field’s evolution?"
Meltzer herself has assumed a handful of “first woman” positions throughout her career, she said, but in 2018 the label feels somewhat antiquated.
“A paradigm shift is required for women to benefit from opportunity, skill building, sponsorship and support in pursuing leadership trajectories,” she wrote. “Counter-stereotype exemplars and male champions are critical to this journey.”
A lack of female radiologists and radiology leaders certainly isn’t their fault, Meltzer wrote—for decades the stereotype of women as soft, nurturing and resigned characters have barred them from consideration for leadership positions, where hiring managers expect they’ll find the ambitious, confident and assertive candidate they want in a man.
Meltzer cited a study by Unilever, a consumer goods company based in the U.K. and Holland, which found that across eight international markets, 77 percent of men and 55 percent of women believed that a man was the best choice to lead a high-stakes project. Both sexes said they felt men were unwelcoming to women in the C suite.
“The prove-it-again syndrome, in which women feel like they have to work harder and repeatedly demonstrate their expertise to be respected in the workplace, can be frustrating and serve as a deterrent to women seeking further advancement,” Meltzer wrote. “Also, it is difficult to reconcile the inherent tension between having one’s professional capabilities questioned and the confidence and poise that effective leaders strive to possess.”
Other biases, such as societal or racial stereotypes, put further pressures on some women, she said.
Meltzer said exposing women to leadership opportunities earlier in their careers could be a sizeable building block toward normalized female leadership; unlike men, women don’t tend to self-identify as leaders early in their lives. If they’re not exposed to growth opportunities early, the drive to climb the corporate ladder seems to diminish with time.
While universal support is key to making these changes, Meltzer said, it’s especially important for men to be on board. Administrators also need to be cautious with things like language, behavior and optics—a job posting that includes gendered language, even inadvertently, discourages women from applying.
Women who are supported in leadership roles also tend to be more effective in improving diversity in their field, Meltzer wrote, and they also tend toward more modern, democratic and collaborative leadership styles.
“As we see more women leaders arise in male-dominated fields like radiology, the impact of gender bias should be mitigated,” she said. “Research has shown that exposure to counter-stereotype exemplars can be powerful in their ability to defuse gender stereotypes.”
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.