When the highly esteemed Professor Priscilla Kincaid-Smith was a young doctor in the 1950s, she defied the government of South Africa to work in the slums of Soweto.
“We worked seven days a week and just loved curing people of preventable illnesses … In South Africa I never experienced any opposition to being a women in medicine,” she said.
So it came as a great shock to her when she migrated with her family to Australia in 1958 to find she was unwanted, and was, in fact, unemployable as a married woman.
“It was made very clear to me that I should stay home and look after our children, and that women were not accepted in senior medical roles in Australia,” she said.
“… It bitterly disappointed me that men put up such strong opposition to appointing me to hospital and university positions.”
But Priscilla wasn’t a woman to be deterred, and went on to become the first female professor at the University of Melbourne, first president of the College of Physicians of Australia, and the first woman president of the World Medical Association.
Despite her achievements, female medical graduates in Australia continue to be disproportionately under-represented in professional senior positions today, despite having attained gender parity in Australian medical schools for decades, and performing equally to male peers on measures of medical knowledge, communication skills, professionalism, technical skills, practice-based learning and clinical judgment.
Women represent only about 30% of deans, chief medical officers, medical college board or committee members, and 12.5% of CEOs in large hospitals. There’s also a 33% pay gap for full-time specialists, and a 25% pay gap among full-time general practitioners.
Clearly, structural and cultural factors persist that impede both equivalent pay and the flow of women into senior and influential levels of the medical profession.
Gender equity refers to “fairness of treatment [for all], according to their respective needs”, which may include equal or different, yet equivalent treatment across rights, benefits, obligations and opportunities.
“Women are often welcome in supportive roles, but when they try to make changes to the system they start to feel a backlash.” – Dr Liz Sigston
Equity underpins workforce diversity, embracing differences to create a productive environment where all are valued and talents and skills are optimally harnessed.
A diverse workforce represents society, understands and responds to community needs, embodies the principles of equity and diversity, and models the diffusion of prejudices and stereotypes, promoting a society free of discrimination. The medical profession should embody, promote and lead on the delivery of these aspirations.
Professor Helena Teede, who works in the Monash University School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, has experienced less “conscious gender bias” in her career than Professor Kincaid Smith, but has been continually confronted by pervasive “unconscious bias”.
Reaching the level of Professor of Medicine at a young age, she was frequently mistaken for the secretary at meetings, and often found herself the “token” single woman on committees.
Professor Teede, who delivered the Royal Australasian College of Physicians Priscilla Kincaid-Smith Oration says: “Whilst efforts to exclude women from leadership roles are increasingly uncommon, gender inequity in medical leadership persists.