Deciding to lead: a qualitative study of women leaders in emergency medicine

Abstract

BackgroundThe aim of this study is to highlight career paths of senior women leaders in academic emergency medicine (EM) to encourage younger women to pursue leadership.MethodsThis was a qualitative study using semi-structured interviews with female EM leaders. We interviewed 22 recognized female leaders selected using criterion-based sampling and a standardized script of open-ended questions derived from the Intelligent Career Model. Questions were related to job purpose, skills, and networking. Interviews were transcribed verbatim and three trained reviewers analyzed transcripts following grounded theory principles and using Dedoose®. Researchers used an iterative process over several meetings to produce the final set of codes and themes.ResultsOur iterative process identified four themes: women leaders made an intentional decision to pursue opportunities to influence emergency medicine, women sought out natural mentors and sponsors to facilitate career development, women leaders intentionally planned their out of work life to support their leadership role, and an important focus for their work was to help others achieve excellence.ConclusionsOur study provides insights from senior female leaders in EM; supporting the value of women pursuing leadership. There is a widely acknowledged need to diversify leadership and support gender-specific needs to develop women leaders in medicine. Becoming a woman leader in EM means making intentional decisions and taking risks. Leaders found benefits in natural mentors and sponsors. Those relationships have power to change the trajectory of emerging women leaders by identifying and reinforcing potential. Work/life balance remains an area which requires intentional planning. Woman leaders encourage succession planning and corroborate the need for increasing the percentage of women leaders to benefit the organizational culture. Leadership in academic medicine is changing with reorientation of a largely autocratic, vertically oriented hierarchy into a more democratic, consensus-driven, and horizontally organized management structure which should complement the strengths women bring to the leadership table.

Towards gender equity in emergency medicine: a position statement from the CAEP Women in Emergency Medicine committee

“…Kang and Kaplan explain that just as many women are in the pipeline as men, but they are excluded at each stage of their professional lives, from recruitment and recommendation to evaluation, promotion, training, and compensation [30]. Women also report being disrespected by colleagues, being held to a higher standard than male colleagues, being treated less formally than male colleagues (being introduced by their first name instead of by their formal titles), and not being invited for major talks like grand rounds [31].…”

Flexing the Leadership Muscle: An International Study of Entrepreneurial Resilience in Rural Communities During the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…A qualitative rapid research design was deemed appropriate to explore how the leaders of small entrepreneurial businesses were navigating the business challenges of the COVID-19 crisis in real-time (Kuckertz et al, 2020). Previous research has shown qualitative research is not only useful in the rapid response research context (Finlay et al, 2013), but appropriate for the study of crisis leadership (Guptill et al, 2018;E.H. James & Wooten, 2010;Moore, 2018) and in areas where existing knowledge is limited (Miller, 1992).…”

The Role of Gender in Careers in Medicine: a Systematic Review and Thematic Synthesis of Qualitative Literature

“…Most studies focused on academic medicine, with studies exploring aspirations of medical students, 29 practicing faculty, 28,[30][31][32][33][34] and successful senior leaders. [35][36][37][38][39] Four studies focused on women physicians in rural practice, [40][41][42][43] and two studies explored women physicians' professional experience coming from Native American 20 and Latina 44 backgrounds. Three studies explored physician burnout.…”