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UEHP SUPPORTS GENDER EQUALITY
International Women's Day 2019: Women surgeons working in private hospitals in Europe
For the International Women’s Day 2019 UEHP launches its photo campaign, proudly presenting the women surgeons working in private hospitals all around Europe.
In a traditionally male-dominated sector such as surgery, the key role and the strong presence, actual and concrete, of women is a added value to our common patients.
Thank you to our members and the female surgeons all around Europe who engaged in this important UEHP initiative to support gender equality and women empowerment in the medical profession.
SPAIN
“Knowledge and good management should be your calling card”
Cristina Contel, President of the Spanish Alliance of Private Health (ASPE)
What piece of advice would you give to young women who wish to embark on a management career in the health sector?
First of all, they should prepare themselves professionally with a strong education in business management in general, not necessarily applied to the health sector, but also to sectors related to science or humanities. In my opinion it is necessary to have a broad overview of the various and numerous transversal sectors that converge with the health sector: economics, law, human resources, markets analysis…
My advice to young women is: Be good professionals, without making your gender a differentiating element, neither positive nor negative. Knowledge and good management should be your calling card.
But for that, we do have to fight in order to have the same opportunities as men, on equal terms, in order to be able to demonstrate our skills, ability and professionalism.
During my entire career in the health sector, I have to say that I met many women, who would have been fully capable of holding management positions and have top-level responsibilities in the health sector, but were not given the opportunity to do so.
What should be done today to ensure that there are more women in high-level positions tomorrow in healthcare institutions?
Personally, I am against the definition of "quotas" that require the presence of a certain number of women in organizations or in positions of responsibility. I believe that the fact of being a man or a woman should not be used as a discriminating principle, neither positive nor negative. The criteria that should be used as a filter to access positions of responsibility should be education, experience and personal skills, regardless of the gender.
However, today, as machoism continues to prevail in the first levels of responsibility, preventing personal values and the professional merits necessary to access such positions to be key selection criteria, “quotas” are necessary tools to enhance the presence of women in high-level positions.
Another objective instrument in achieving this milestone would be the "blind curriculum" in which candidates applying for high-level positions would be chosen without knowing their gender, name or condition. It would be also useful to anonymize applications and focus the choice on professional qualities and skills that have nothing to do with the gender. This would also help to alleviate the negative effects of the "wage gap" that occurs between men and women under equal work conditions and responsibilities.
The creation and joint participation of a Commission on equality is also an important means to create awareness within entities. This Commission should be supported and encouraged by the Directorate, ensuring that the management of teams is carried out by people trained in the principles of equal treatment and opportunities between men and women, as well as non-discrimination. Personnel recruiters should be sensitized and trained in matters of gender equality.
But the best way to ensure the objectivity and equality of opportunities between men and women is to raise awareness and create a “culture” showing that professionalism is not gender dependent and that the choice of professionals should be based on objective criteria related to the position.
ITALY
“The ability to project yourself into the future, keeping in mind your history”
Barbara Cittadini, President of the Italian Association of Private Hospitals (AIOP)
Since May 2017 and for the very first time since its establishment, the Italian Association of Private Hospitals (AIOP) has a female President, Mrs Barbara Cittadini. Born in Palermo (Sicily), graduated in political science at Universita’ Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Milan, she holds a Master in "Executive heath management" at the Bocconi University in Milan. Since 1994, Mrs Cittadini has been president and legal representative of the Casa di cura Candela, since July 2016 president of AIOP Sicily and since June 2012 National Vice president of AIOP.
Among other tasks, Barbara Cittadini is a member of the thematic group Health-Life Science of Confindustria (the Association of Italian Industries). Last November 8th, she was awarded the recognition of Cavaliere del Lavoro by the President of the Republic of Italy, Sergio Mattarella, for her commitment in making the health system in Sicily more efficient, with the aim of improving the access to health care by the local community.
Mrs Cittadini, can you please summarise your experience as a woman entrepreneur in healthcare?
The role I hold is for me source of pride but, above all, of responsibility. It represents a recognition that combines the pride of being a woman, Sicilian and entrepreneur, with the ability to operate in such a sensitive sector as healthcare which protects a constitutionally-guaranteed right like health; in addition, the wonderful but complex region where I live, Sicily, makes "doing business" a very difficult and challenging job. I started working when I was twenty-two and I have never experienced the difference of being a woman in the work environment. I am aware that I had the privilege to start my career with a role and decision-making autonomy that made things easier for me, but I never experienced any particular problems of integration at work.
Concerning my role as President of AIOP, I am very proud to represent 550 private hospitals, members of our association. I see this experience has an opportunity to always seek for a better balance between efficiency and effectiveness and the economic sustainability of our NHS.
It is crucial for me to stress the importance of our hospitals - the private component of our NHS - which have a great responsibility in the protection of citizens’ health. We are at the service of the entire population and its demand for health. This is such an important and delicate task!
The first objective that I envisaged to achieve during my mandate is representing the interests of all AIOP hospitals and clinics - large, medium and small - respecting and valorising their diversity, because the uniqueness of every single hospital is an asset for us. As President I will continue working to create new forms of collaboration to strengthen the entire health chain and the role of AIOP.
Every day, AIOP hospitals are committed to satisfying, in an efficient and effective way, the health demand of the Italians, who continue to choose us for the quality of the care we provide. In fact, we must always bear in mind that health is the most valuable asset that each of us has. Therefore, the perpetration of a health system that is struggling to function is unimaginable.
What advice would you give to a woman willing to start a career in healthcare?
Beyond the approximate theories about the differences between men and women, which I am not particularly fond of, I am convinced that what really rewards a professional path, of any kind, is training, competence, commitment and tenacity in the pursuit of your objectives. I am convinced that as women we have sensitivity, we develop empathy and we have a propensity to be determined in what we see as priorities in our lives; we struggle to find a balance between professional roles and family commitments, which is not always easy to find.
The peculiar characteristics of being a professional in healthcare are based on communicative competence, organizational capacity and systematization of commitment, on the quality of the human relationships, on the efficiency of the teamwork, on the management of networks of relationships and on the ability to mediate between different positions.
These attitudes seem to me the effective keystone to be able to facilitate the shift, already in place in healthcare, from the "cure" to the "taking care" of the patient. As a matter of fact, in the last fifty-sixty years, many women have shown professional skills in the world of medicine, from general surgery to any specialized branch and, when appointed, they have shown equivalent skills and competencies as Director general or health directors.
ITALY
Women in surgery in Italia
The Italian Association of Women Surgeons (WIS Italia) project begins in operating theatre back in 2015 from two women surgeons inspired by each other.
The big challenge in male/female ratio among Italian Universities and Residency programs has been well documented since the last decade and, in a close future, surgical departments will be populated by as many women surgeons as men. Hence, it is necessary to be prepared to what is expected.
WIS Italia aims to represent and support every woman surgeon in Italy from medical school to leadership position, through mentoring and research programs, high level surgical training and networking across the surgical community. We completed a national survey in 2016 (non published data) where the feeling of gender-based discrimination was confirmed at any level of surgical training and surgical career. Moreover: lack of women as a mentor in surgery plays a role in deterring young medical students to pursue a surgical career; childbearing is an unconfessed fault that puts mother surgeons in a crucial crossroads forcing them to choose between family and professional fulfilling. Therefore the need of administrative and social support (flexible hours and duties, in-hospital child care, maternity and paternity leave, ..) is high and goes together with a deep cultural change that will probably take some years.
WIS Italia has the full support of Italian Association of Surgery (SIC) that was helpful, since the begin, to reach the vast majority of Italian surgeons: after three years we count 82 active members, scientific activity in progress and collaboration with other similar association across the world. Moreover, the Association motivate its members to play a proactive role: the annual grant for a course of laparoscopic liver surgery (IgoMILS) is assigned to the best project regarding women and surgery. For year 2019/2020 we announced The WALL, focusing on new ideas for plans and strategies to break down gender stereotypes in surgical work place.
The presence of a growing number of women in a male dominated field like surgery will bring a necessary re- modeling of surgery on women (not the other way around!).
For any information or contact, email to womeninsurgeryitalia@gmail.com
Isabella Frigerio, MD PhD
Co-founder and Past President WIS Italia
Pederzoli Hospital – Peschiera del Garda
Gaya Spolverato, MD
Co-founder and President in Charge WIS Italia
University Hospital of Padua
Dr Isabella Frigerio
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