In this cross over chat between Medical Mums and Coda, Dr Chris Bowles & A/Prof Nada Hamad discuss Gender Equity in Medicine – What is it & Why Does it Matter?
Chris and Nada take a deep dive into gender equity in medicine. Including the impact of the pandemic and the possible solutions.
First, they discuss the difference between gender equity and equality. Equality is the act of treating everyone the same. Whereas equity, focuses on levelling the playing field so that there is more representation and participation. This includes asking questions such as why inequity exists? And why aren’t women progressing?
Evidently, women experience gender inequity at different times of their career. It may be after they’ve had children, or it may be when they want to step up and take on leadership roles.
What is most obvious however, is that the impact of gender inequity in medicine extends far past the individual. Gender inequity impacts how we look after female patients, what kind of questions we ask in research and how we perform and apply that research in the context of women’s healthcare.
Chris and Nada discuss what needs to happen to make the system more accommodating.
This includes implicit bias training, intersectionality training and leadership training. Investment in leadership skills and training is crucial. We can have all of the right policies in place, however, if leadership doesn’t set the standard to encourage uptake, inequity will always exist.
Join Emergency & Trauma physician, Dr Chris Bowles and Haematologist, Dr Nada Hamad, as they discuss gender inequity in medicine. They inspire us to identify and challenge the inequity that exists today.
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Nada Hamad
Nada Hamad is a senior staff specialist bone marrow transpalnt, clinical and laboratory haematologist at St Vincent’s hospital in Sydney, where she is also director of the haematology clinical trials unit. She is President of the Bone Marrow Transplant Society of Australia and New Zealand, Chair of the ACI NSW BMT network and Chair of ALLG BMTCT working group. She is a senior lecturer at the University of Sydney and University of NSW. Nada studied Medicine at the University of Sydney and completed her Haematology training in Sydney. Prior to her career in medicine, she completed a Bachelor of Science and Master of Science in Forensics, working in this field for a short period of time. She completed two post-graduate fellowships in BMT and lymphoma at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre in Toronto Canada through the University of Toronto. She has a strong interest in clinical trials, has a specialist certificate in Clinical Research (Oncology) from the University of Melbourne and is an active member of the Australasian Leukaemia and Lymphoma Group (ALLG) as a member of a number of disease group committees. Her clinical research interests are in malignant haematology and bone marrow transplantation.
Christine Bowles
Chris Bowles is a Trauma and Emergency Physician at Royal North Shore Hospital in Sydney. She is a lecturer at the University of Sydney, where she is creating a new Unit of Study entitled Trauma Beyond the Resus Room. She has served as clinical director of a major trauma service, has co-chaired the statewide ITIM Education Committee, and spoken at or convened many international meetings- this year navigating the challenges of delivering the Coda Trauma mini-congress in the midst of a pandemic.
When not at work she enjoys running, reading, and hanging out with husband Oli and their three kids + dog.
