Women’s History Month: Female Leadership in Healthcare – Progress and Persistent Challenges
Women’s History Month provides a perfect opportunity to examine female leadership in healthcare, a field where women have made significant strides yet continue to face unique challenges. In a recent Transforming Healthcare Coaching podcast conversation focused on Women’s History Month and female leadership in healthcare, coaches Lillian Liang Emlet and Gillian Faith shared insights about the evolving landscape for women leaders, drawing from both research and their extensive experience coaching healthcare professionals.
Women’s History Month Highlights: Progress in Healthcare Leadership
There’s encouraging news regarding women’s representation in healthcare leadership. According to Dr. Liang Emlet, the American Association of Medical Colleges (AAMC) reports that since 2021, women now comprise the majority (over 51%) of medical school applicants, students, and graduates. Additionally, more women are serving as full-time faculty than ever before, particularly among those under 50.
Progress is also evident in leadership positions, although gaps remain:
“If you look back retroactively back in 2013, it was only 15-16 percent of department chairs or deans of medical schools were women. And now it’s 25 to 27 percent in 2023,” Dr. Liang Emlet shares.
This steady increase represents meaningful progress, though parity remains elusive at the highest levels of healthcare leadership. Women remain underrepresented as hospital CEOs, department chairs, and medical school deans despite making up a majority of the healthcare workforce.
Celebrating Women’s History Month: Factors Affecting Career Satisfaction
For Women’s History Month, it’s important to recognize the structural factors that impact female healthcare professionals’ career trajectories. Research on women in nursing careers has identified four key factors affecting career satisfaction and wellbeing:
- Career breaks: Time taken for caregiving or part-time work can impact advancement
- Workload: Clinical expectations and patient loads significantly affect wellbeing
- Control over work: Lack of autonomy drives many to seek alternative career paths
- Leadership opportunities: Access to leadership roles influences overall satisfaction
Dr. Liang Emlet notes that many nursing professionals “choose a career pivot or a career diversification pathway because they’re like, ‘I can’t just never have any control over what patients are going to be assigned or what projects I’m going to do.'” This drive for greater autonomy often leads to roles in quality improvement, research, business administration, or finance.
Female Leadership in Healthcare: Generational Perspectives
Women’s History Month prompts reflection on how approaches to gender challenges in healthcare have evolved across generations. Dr. Liang Emlet observes fascinating contrasts in how different generations navigate gender-related workplace issues:
“What’s amazing about the generations, I now see my trainees much more willing to speak up about things about racism, gender discrimination, much more so than I ever experienced. I think a lot of the internalization of societal norms is in my generation… [We] tried to figure out a way to blend in, but then when [we] figured out a way to blend in, we actually internalize many of these messages.”
Younger healthcare professionals appear more willing to question established norms and advocate for change rather than adapting themselves to fit into problematic systems. This generational shift creates both challenges and opportunities as organizations navigate evolving expectations around gender equity.
Breaking Down Internal Barriers for Women Leaders
During Women’s History Month, examining the internal barriers women face in healthcare leadership is particularly relevant. Dr. Liang Emlet describes how women often struggle with limiting beliefs:
“A lot of times women don’t choose jobs because they’re afraid of what it could entail. Like redefining, ‘Well, what does a woman leader look like?’ They may have never seen one before. They have no role model. They often have myths about, ‘Well, it’s going to entail sacrifice of some kind of time.’ You don’t know that… So it’s about debunking myths, I think, to some degree.”
These internalized barriers can be especially challenging to overcome. Both coaches emphasize that often, women know what they don’t want but struggle to envision alternatives they’ve never seen modeled.
“The reality is it’s hard to envision something you don’t know,” Dr. Liang Emlet explains. “The more people you can see role model or the more curiosity you have to go explore the world beyond your organization or beyond your group of people helps you see that, ‘Oh, there actually is a way, there’s so much diversity out in the world.’ The more you get to see, the more you realize that you can also forge your own path.”
Balancing Multiple Roles and Identities
Women in healthcare leadership often navigate complex intersecting identities as caregivers, partners, parents, and professionals. This Women’s History Month, acknowledging these challenges is essential.
Dr. Liang Emlet shares that many of her coaching clients are “either a permanent director of something or a division chief or a chair, and the challenge is really always, to some degree, foundationally, the beginning is to not lose themself completely into the job. And how do they keep all the other parts of themselves strong.”
She emphasizes the importance of foundational wellbeing:
“Most of the women leaders I coach recognize that I have to really pay really good attention to my health and my sleep and my mental wellbeing and my relationship with my partner, because if I do those foundations really well, the rest is 1000 times easier.”
This holistic approach recognizes that leadership effectiveness depends on maintaining balance across all life domains. For women leaders in particular, intentional attention to wellbeing fundamentals provides the foundation for sustainable leadership.
Overcoming Overwhelm in Healthcare Leadership
Overwhelm is a common challenge for healthcare leaders regardless of gender, but Women’s History Month offers an opportunity to examine how gender may influence experiences of overwhelm. Dr. Liang Emlet identifies two primary sources:
1. Taking on others’ problems: “Letting other people’s perceptions or anxieties override into your world and then you own it and you want to fix it. And actually it’s not yours to fix, other people’s concerns, other people’s opinions… When we try to overstep it, we actually try to own everybody’s problems.”
The tendency to feel responsible for fixing everyone else’s issues can lead to unsustainable burdens, particularly in healthcare where leadership often emerges from clinical excellence that involves problem-solving.
2. Overcommitment to exciting opportunities: “Everything is amazing… You want to be a part of every piece of the awesome stuff, which is on research, being on teaching. You want to do it all. And so you’re just so excited to just do everything that you often bite off more than you can chew.”
Dr. Liang Emlet suggests approaching overwhelming periods with time limits: “Life is one big time-limited trial… Just for three months, how could I pare back just for three months clinically in this huge time of transition or a new project going underway?”
This framing makes temporary adjustments more palatable by recognizing they’re not permanent changes to identity or contribution.
Women’s History Month: Negotiation Strategies for Healthcare Leaders
Women’s History Month is also an opportunity to discuss negotiation strategies for healthcare professionals. Gillian Faith offers several practical approaches:
Identify what you truly want: “Getting really clear on what you actually want to walk away from the table with is a really good first step. Working with a mentor or a coach can really help get that clarity.”
Practice difficult conversations: “Sometimes things like role playing, what the scenario might be like if it’s a high stakes conversation… that’s another useful way to approach it.”
Approach with confidence: “Sometimes women especially are afraid to ask for what they really want. So I think owning that and understanding that what you want is important… you’ve got to start somewhere.”
Dr. Liang Emlet adds that persistence and a collective approach can drive systemic change: “Parental rights really came from both men and women generationally… Just because [someone says] no right now doesn’t mean that it won’t be a no forever… You might find more friends, like once you start talking about it, you start asking other colleagues and next thing the entire group wants exactly what you have.”
This collaborative approach recognizes that individual negotiation can pave the way for policy-level changes that benefit everyone.
Looking Forward: Advice for Women Leaders in Healthcare
As Women’s History Month reminds us to look both backward and forward, the coaches offer guidance for women navigating healthcare leadership:
“We stand on the shoulders of other giants, male or female, and the reality is everything you do moves the needle forward,” Dr. Liang Emlet concludes. “You’re a role model for somebody else. And the more we network and the more we share and the more that we lift all boats with the tide, the better it will become.”
This reminder that each woman’s leadership journey contributes to a larger historical progression provides powerful perspective. Every boundary pushed, every negotiation attempted, and every leadership role filled by a woman creates new possibilities for those who follow.
The Bottom Line: Women’s History Month and the Future of Healthcare Leadership
Women’s History Month offers an important opportunity to acknowledge both progress and persistent challenges in female leadership in healthcare. While representation of women has improved significantly, barriers remain at the highest leadership levels.
Women healthcare leaders continue to navigate complex challenges, from balancing multiple roles to overcoming internal barriers and external biases. By addressing these challenges collectively—sharing strategies, mentoring others, and advocating for systemic change—women in healthcare leadership are creating a more equitable future.
For those facing these challenges, working with coaches who understand the unique dynamics of healthcare can provide valuable support. As Gillian Faith notes, “If you are struggling with some things and would like to move the action forward, feel free to reach out and have a discovery call with one of us.”
By combining individual development with collective action, women in healthcare leadership are writing the next chapter of Women’s History Month—one that includes greater representation, influence, and impact at all levels of healthcare.
Looking for support in your healthcare leadership journey? The Transforming Healthcare Coaching team specializes in helping healthcare professionals navigate leadership challenges. Book a discovery call to connect with a coach who understands your world.
Want weekly tips for thriving in healthcare? Join our community of healthcare professionals making positive changes in their careers and lives.
