WOMEN IN EMERGENCY MEDICINE SECTION
To Typify an Ally: Ways to be a Male Advocate for Women Deanna Margius, MD
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peaking with an older generation of female colleagues has allowed me to understand the noteworthy progress that has been made in emergency medicine for women. The 2019 statistics for EM physicians are 72% male, and 28% female, compared to 78.5% and 21.5% in 2008.1 Our male allies can help us to continue the momentum of the progress in our field. What exactly is an ally? To quote Dr. Frederick Davis, an administrator at Hofstra Northwell-LIJ hospital: “[an ally is] someone who is part of that majority or position seen as authority. [He/ she/they] can be a valuable voice in the fight for equity. The ally is that person on the ‘inside’ who can get the attention and has the voice that will get others to listen and act in collaboration to change. Great teams are formed by being able to have a level of comfort that everyone can speak their concerns. You have to work to create that environment.” Allies exist to support diversity of race, ethnicity, gender identity, sexual orientation, and religion. As an ally, it is important to have the courage to engage in difficult discussions. This is the first step to learning another person’s perspective and his/ her/their ideas for system-wide change and the allies' role in that plan. After interviewing my male colleagues about the topic of allyship, I have summarized some ideas for positive change.
the female physician’s role and her position of authority. Similarly, male allies should respond in real-time to admonish sexist comments. Men can also seek out opportunities for mentorship for female medical students, residents, and young attendings. This mentorship can be especially valuable in pipeline programs or leadership programs. Residents and clinical attendings can be allies through flexibility with scheduling. They can acknowledge scheduling conflicts that arise with pregnancy and caretaking of children and elderly family members. Women historically have taken primary ownership of these family responsibilities. However, supporting both male and female colleagues to have time off to accomplish these tasks can continue the momentum of this modern paradigm shift.
Residency program leadership can be effective allies through recruiting and creating diverse leadership teams. Aside from setting the tone of education and practice, they can institute Men in all roles can take action to support deliberate change aimed at addressing gender women in real time. Patients may mislabel a gaps. Program director Dr. Tom Perera took female resident or attending as a nurse. A male over a predominantly male residency at Hofstra ally can correct this mislabeling to reaffirm Northwell-LIJ. He then actively recruited female faculty and residents. The composition of the residency leadership achieved While women can work to be self-advocates, gender equality in 2020. sponsors and mentors for younger generations, The female residency leadand supporters of our own rights, we cannot ers have been instrumental accomplish the goals of equity and inclusion in the group’s progress. without support from our male colleagues. Additionally, the residency leadership team committed
to interviewing and ranking a larger number of female applicants. The class of 2024 is 60% female, compared to significantly lower numbers in previous years. In addition, the program supported the Women in EM interest group, dedicated conference time to gender equality, and ensured that invited grand rounds speakers were more equally represented. A program that is committed to matching a diverse residency
class needs a leadership team who actively recruits minority and female candidates, which can include diversity and inclusion networking events for candidates to engage with future mentors. If a program consistently does not match a diverse class, leadership should create an action plan for change. Administration faculty can be allies by having an awareness about job-tasking, recruitment, and transparency of pay and policies. While teams of leaders work together to accomplish goals for the benefit of one or many departments, tasks may not be equally distributed. The concept of office housework describes non-promotable work—these are tasks that are necessary but undervalued, unlikely to lead to promotion, and disproportionately assigned to women. These tasks include taking minutes Countinued on page 26 >>
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COMMON SENSE JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2023