
6 minute read
Workforce Gender Disparity in Clinical Radiology
from Inside News December 2022
by RANZCR
It was entirely fitting that the recent Women in Leadership breakfast at the College’s 72nd Annual Scientific Meeting to recognise and celebrate outstanding female leaders in clinical radiology, was also the platform for a lively and illuminating panel discussion on gender disparity in the clinical radiology workforce.
The College saw this as a valuable opportunity to highlight and explore the gender gap in the clinical radiology workforce and the under-representation of female radiologists in leadership roles. With the theme Reflect | Revive | Reimagine, participants were treated to thought-provoking presentations and insights from a cross-section of highly accomplished women in clinical radiology and radiation oncology, facilitated by clinical radiologist, Dr Emmeline Lee.
Drawing upon the latest gender-specific data from the College’s clinical radiology workforce census and international research, clinical radiologists and researchers, Dr Sally Ayesa1 and Dr Wanyin Lim2, shared the results of their recently published research which explored the challenges of achieving gender diversity within the College’s own governance and within the Australian and New Zealand clinical radiology workforce. Their findings are compelling.
These numbers are exacerbated in clinical radiology where women are significantly under-represented at higher leadership levels.
The Australian data are comparable to international trends which confirm that gender inequity among representative leadership in clinical radiology is a global issue, with the lack of gender diversity in leadership even more marked when compared to workforce representation.
Internationally, academic radiology has a “leaky pipeline”, where the proportion of women incrementally decreases as they progress further along the career path towards leadership and senior faculty positions.
Women leaders face a disproportionate magnitude of seen and unseen challenges to leadership engagement and progression when compared to men, described by Dr Ayesa as a ‘glass labyrinth’ which is likely contributing to this discrepancy.
Research confirms that the causes are complex, with this disparity likely resulting from the interplay of multiple, intersecting factors including unconscious bias at an organisational, institutional and personal level, compounded by social constructs around gender roles and the challenges of balancing work and home responsibilities.
Unconscious bias refers to ways that humans unknowingly draw upon assumptions about individuals and groups to make decisions about them. These biases can lead to differential treatment on the basis of negative or positive stereotypes about social identity groups.
In clinical radiology, these include assumptions of inferior capability, capacity and credibility among women radiologist leaders, creating unique challenges at organisational, institutional and personal levels, as do perceptions of what constitutes a leader, where ‘male’ traits of assertiveness, charisma, confidence are valued over ‘female’ traits of empathy, sensitivity and collaboration.
In sharing her personal experience, Dr Ayesa illustrated many of the barriers to gender parity that emerged in her research and the fact that female clinical radiologists have gender-specific work patterns which need to be considered in workforce planning.
“I had a child in training and took time off, then had to work part-time. I fell behind my other colleagues in terms of my career progression and certainly didn’t engage with leadership opportunities. Because I was working part-time, I was unable to take senior registrar roles at my hospital,” she said.
“Did it hinder me and my progression and did it stop me from doing things I would have liked to have done? Yes, probably.”
According to Dr Wanyin Lim, in Australia and New Zealand clinical radiology is widely perceived to be a specialty where it is easy to work part-time yet its popularity among female medical graduates is declining, reflected in a steady decrease in the proportion of female trainees since 2012.
While there is a good gender balance in most medical schools, the current under-representation of women in clinical radiology training programs suggests that there is a need to expose medical students and junior doctors to the speciality of clinical radiology early in their careers to stimulate their interest and dispel common misconceptions about the profession.
What is the way forward?
The College is committed to working with members to consider potential knowledge gaps and solutions in this area, with the ultimate goal of improving gender diversity both in the clinical radiology workforce and in governance structures.
“It is of great importance that we recognise the gender gap, which is the first step towards achieving gender diversity and equality in our workforce. I firmly believe that improving gender diversity in the radiology workforce will ultimately deliver patient-centred care and better health outcomes. I pledge that the College will embark on this journey through enabling innovations and collaborations that can achieve gender equality,” said Clin A/Prof Sanjay Jeganathan, College President.
Improving gender equality requires a systemic, multi-dimensional and inclusive approach informed by members, research and international experience, one that tackles unconscious bias; understands and responds to the gender-specific differences in workforce participation; upskills people of all genders; and encourages them to engage or reengage with representation at all levels of their career.
In the USA, the American College of Radiology (ACR) established a Commission for Women and Diversity to give a voice to women and minority clinical radiologists. Formal recommendations from the group included initiatives that offer greater flexibility in work options to respond to gender-specific work patterns; remove the stigma associated with balancing work and home; and provide greater flexibility to enable women to develop leadership skills at a later stage in their career.
Initiatives that we can all be involved in
In our jurisdictions, the College is working on other ACR recommendations to offer professional opportunities to increase women’s visibility by recognising success and achievement; and to offer targeted member services including networking and mentoring opportunities which are known to positively impact gender diversity.
Dr Wanyin Lim notes however, that while working towards a diverse and inclusive workforce that is reflective of the community it serves, this needs to be done with full recognition that aspirations and goals are those of the individual and not inherently tied to gender or other characteristics used to define individuals.
Clinical radiology as a specialty stands to gain much in the way of progress and innovation as we move towards improved diversity within our workforce and our leadership.
References
1 Ayesa, S.L., McEniery, J.C., Hill, L.S., McCloskey, C.E. and Lee, E.H. (2022), Navigating the glass labyrinth: Addressing gender diversity in Australian and New Zealand representative radiology leadership. J Med Imaging Radiat Oncol.
2 Lim, W., Gupta, N. and Mandel, C. (2022), Analysis of gender in radiology in Australia and its importance to the profession and workforce planning. J Med Imaging Radiat Oncol.