AMWA Initiatives
The American Medical Women’s Association advocates to bring under-addressed issues to the forefront of the national agenda.
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Gender Equity Task Force
Mission
The American Medical Women’s Association Gender Equity Task Force (AMWA GETF) strives to accomplish gender equity as a fact of life in society, and to engage in activities, action and collaborations pursuant to this goal, beginning with the healthcare industry of which women physicians are one component.
Goals and Objectives
- Educate all healthcare professionals on the importance of establishing gender equity in the healthcare system, starting with women physicians.
- Emphasize the importance of gender equity as a work force and health care reform issue.
- Further the American Medical Women’s Association’s goal of forming a networking alliance among all female physicians and female physician organizations by creating a database of contacts.
- Create a library of useful resources that we can share with others on Gender Equity in the medical profession.
- Research and identify other organizations with gender equity initiatives.
- Create a networking database with other organizations with gender equity initiatives – Gimbalvo Grant.
- Create a speaker’s bureau targeting speakers on gender equity issues.
- Create educational materials defining gender equity issues.
Linda Brodsky Memorial Grant
The Dr. Linda Brodsky Memorial Fund honors Dr. Brodsky’s memory by endorsing her passions for gender equity, medical student success, clinical research and the advancement of women physicians. Funds will be used to support the Brodsky Memorial Scholarship and related initiatives promoting gender equity in medicine including but not limited to medical student projects, relevant research and quality of care.
Learn More and ApplyMore Info
Position
Related News
- Harvard Medical School Leaders Launch #BeEthical Campaign for Gender Equity
- Battle on Buffalo Run held July 22 as a Benefit for the Linda Brodsky Memorial Fund
- AMWA Participates in IDEAGEN 2017 UN Summit on Women and Girls
- AMWA Participates in Vision 2020: Equality in Sight, a national initiative to achieve gender equity by 2020, the centennial anniversary of women’s suffrage.
- New male doctors earned 17% more than female doctors in US in 2008
- Women Doctors Face $17,000 Pay Gap
- Gender Gap in Physician Pay Widening
- Press Release – AMWA’s Formal Response to the Pay Gap
- AMWA GETF Chair Dr. Roberta Gephard speaks on pay inequity.
Dollars for Dudes: Almost No Women Among Medical Industry’s Top-Paid Speakers, Consultants
Get Involved
Fixing the Leaky Pipeline
Statistical data regarding the number of women entering medical school over the past decade have indicated that more than 47% of entering medical students are women (AAMC Women in Medicine Benchmark Statistics). Yet the number of practicing women physicians over the past decade has remained below 35% with most recent estimates around 32.6% of active physicians (AAMC 2014 Physician Data Bank Report). When looking more closely at the numbers of women in leadership positions, the percentages are discouragingly low, especially within the top leadership positions.
This phenomenon of the leaky pipeline for women in medicine is not new. Yet with the increasing influx of women in medicine over the past decade, it is concerning that the problem continues to exist; if anything, the gap in seems to be widening.
We have launched a 2-year initiative, Fixing the Pipeline, to identify
- The time points where women are exiting the medical profession
- The risk factors for these time points
- Possible solutions to address these risk factors
- Interventions that would help retain women in the medical profession
This initiative would look at women all stages of their biomedical careers, as students, residents in training, researchers, and practicing physicians. Both academic and non-academic careers would be studied.
Timeline:
- Preparatory Phase (2018) – begin literature review, gather statistics, identify national partners and institutions, and set up meetings
- Year 1 (2018-2019) – identify the time points and risk factors for women who leave the medical profession
- Comprehensive literature review of the past and current research on this issue Review / analyze available data sets from national organizations and institutions Identify data trends
- Convene organizations, institutions, and leaders through meetings, focus groups, or summits.
- Conduct in-depth institutional and organizational analyses
- Year 2 (2019-2020) – identify possible solutions to address these risk factor and interventions that would help retain women in the medical
- Establish working groups to focus on particular issues and identify solutions Engage institutions and organizations to discuss these solutions
- Develop interventions
- Post Year 2 (2020 and beyond) – Encourage widespread implementation of interventions and monitoring of data points at 5 and 10 with the goal of “fixing the leaky ”
Seeking grant funding for:
- Administrative project support
- Research and data analysis
- Meetings and focus groups
- Program Development
- Publications and Printing
To get involved, e-mail AssociateDirector@amwa-doc.org.
Resources
Bibliography of Articles
About the Gender Equity Task Force
During 2010, the Gender Equity Task force wrote its mission statement and position paper, in addition to, compiling a list of all women physician organizations, and their contacts, in which women physicians have chosen to organize. Together they created a webinar entitled Achieving Gender Equity for Women Physicians for AMWA’s networking alliance. Following the webinar, the gender equity task force was asked to comment as an authority on gender discrepancies in medicine, specifically with relation to pay discrepancies between male and female physicians upon entry into the physician workforce.
At AMWA’s 2011 Annual Meeting, the gender equity task force presented their goals for 2012 to AMWA’s networking alliance and formulated new goals for their 2012 agenda which included plans for a workforce study group and a longitudinal, relational data base to help answer questions about women in medicine. The GETF was a recipient of the AMA Giambalvo funds for a Planning Grant: Creating the Foundation for Study of Women Physicians in the 21st Century Principle Investigator: Linda Brodsky, MD, Co-Chair, American Medical Women’s Association (AMWA), Gender Equity Task Force (GETF) Co-Investigator: Roberta Gebhard, DO, Co-Chair, AMWA.
In 2015, AMWA established the Linda Brodsky Memorial Fund and Linda Brodsky Memorial Lecture to honor the leadership of Dr. Brodsky. AMWA has continued to maintain WomenMDResources which was founded by Dr. Brodsky to be a resource for women physicians and students.