Medical women: internet resource
July 2006
External organisations with resources for women in medicine
The Medical Women’s Federation (MWF)
www.medicalwomensfederation.org.uk
The MWF focuses on the development of women working in medicine. Their aims are to:
- advance the personal and professional development of women in medicine
- change discriminatory attitudes and practices and to work on behalf of all women and their families.
MWF achievements and campaigns include:
- campaigning to remove limits on numbers of women entering medical school
- pressing for the introduction and improvement of the retainer scheme which allows doctors to keep in touch with medicine during periods of limited work
- pioneering the development and acceptance of flexible training schemes and flexible working patterns
- persuading the government to interpret general practice contracts so that women are not disadvantaged
- continuing to campaign for women sessional GPs in general practice
- raising the issue of continuing medical education of staff and associate specialist hospital career grade practitioners
- holding national conferences on prevention, diagnosis and treatment of diseases and conditions that particularly affect women throughout their lives
- involving members in monitoring and planning changes in women's health services
- identifying changes needed in medico-legal practice for women who are sexually abused
- pressing for family friendly employment policies and childcare tax relief, and the provision of hospital nurseries and crèches which recognise the hours that doctors work
- campaigning to reverse attitudes and practices that disadvantage or discourage women doctors from entering academic medicine, surgical and some medical specialties
- encouraging and supporting women doctors to play a greater role in medical decision making and medical politics.
www.mwia.net
The MWIA is an association of medical women representing women doctors from all five continents. Their aims and goals are to:
- promote the cooperation of medical women in different countries and to develop friendship and understanding between medical women throughout the world
- actively work against gender related inequalities in the medical profession between female and male doctors including career opportunities and economical aspects
- offer medical women the opportunity to meet so as to confer upon questions concerning the health and well-being of humanity.
www.eoc.org.uk
The Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC) works towards eliminating sex discrimination in the UK. It has found that half of parents do not have access to flexible working and yet the majority of women with children work. In their report, Women and flexible working in the NHS (2003) (see reference 5), the EOC found that family and career friendly approaches to work are necessary to accommodate the needs of women in the NHS. Download as a pdf.
In 2005 the EOC published Britain’s hidden brain drain. After a year long investigation they found that Britain's flexible and part-time working arrangements are failing to meet the needs of working women and men, leaving 5.6 million people, four out of five of Britain's seven million part-time workers working in jobs that do not use their potential. Among the recommendations made were that the right to request flexible working should be extended to all (see reference 48). Download as a pdf.
In October 2007 the EOC will be incorporated, along with the Disability Rights Commission and the Commission for Racial Equality (in 2009) into the new Commission for Equality and Human Rights (CEHR) (www.cehr.org.uk ), which is established by the Equality Act 2006 - download as a pdf. The CEHR will bring together the expertise and resources to promote equality and tackle discrimination in relation to gender, gender reassignment, disability, sexual orientation, religion or belief, age and human rights.
General Medical Council (GMC)
www.gmc-uk.org
The GMC, in its good practice review of the pre-registration house officer year, The New Doctor (2005) (see reference 49), requires that those responsible for undergraduate training provide guidance to individuals seeking flexible training opportunities for pre-registration house officer positions. They must also provide guidance to individuals who take career breaks and wish to return and resume their training. Read more here.
The Royal College of Surgeons of England
www.rcseng.ac.uk
The Royal College of Surgeons in England has an initiative called Women in Surgical Training (WIST) (see reference 50) which aims to increase the representation of women at consultant level in the surgical profession and support women choosing surgery as a career. WIST provides information, advice, and support to its members while also producing newsletters and holding conferences. Read more here.
The Royal College of Physicians
www.rcplondon.ac.uk
The Royal College of Physicians has a section on its website dedicated to Women in Medicine: www.rcplondon.ac.uk/news/womenmed.asp Included are the key issues facing women in the medical profession and facts about women in the medical workforce, their opportunities, and relevant workforce issues.
The 2001 Federation of Royal Colleges of Physicians’ working party report, Women in hospital medicine: career choices and opportunities (see reference 11), examined the position of women in medical specialties, academic medicine, and senior positions. The report made various recommendations on improving working conditions for women, including flexible training and working, ability to work part time, childcare provision and mentoring to provide career guidance. Read more here.
Royal College of Psychiatrists
www.rcpsych.ac.uk
The Royal College of Psychiatrists has set up a group, Women in Psychiatry Special Interest Group, to improve the working lives of women, provide career guidance and monitor the situation of women in psychiatry. Read more here.
Gay and Lesbian Association of Doctors and Dentists (GLADD)
www.gladd.org.uk
This organisation provides professional and social support for gay, lesbian and bisexual doctors, dentists and medical and dental students. GLADD aims to combat discrimination against gays, lesbians and bisexuals, and collect and disseminate information on issues relevant to the practice of medicine and dentistry.
Postgraduate Medical Education and Training Board (PMETB)
www.pmetb.org.uk
The PMETB was set up in 2003 to ‘establish, maintain, and develop standards and requirements relating to postgraduate medical education and training in the United Kingdom.’ The PMETB assumed its full statutory functions in September 2005. To achieve the goal of ensuring the quality and standard of postgraduate education and training, the PMETB will, in part, create a new system that responds to the flexibility needed by health service providers (see reference 51).
Department of Health (DH)
www.dh.gov.uk
The Department of Health in England has set target for NHS recruitment in its framework for equal opportunities, the Vital Connection. This also sets out priorities and actions in order to increase diversity within the NHS so it reflects the communities it serves (see reference 52).
The Improving Working Lives (IWL) Standard was launched by the DH in 2000. Download as a pdf. It sets out ways in which the NHS should ensure that it provides greater flexibility to staff, improves access to childcare, encourages diversity and tackles discrimination. It sets benchmarks against which the implementation of these can be measured. More information, including a good practice database, can be found at the DH website and at the NHS Employers website .
The Positively Diverse programme was developed by the DH and transferred to NHS Employers in 2004. It aims to build, manage and retain a diverse workforce in the NHS. Read more here.
Sharing the challenge, sharing the benefits – equality and diversity in the medical workforce (2004) (see reference 53) is a consultation document from the DH outlining the key challenges regarding equality and diversity in the medical workforce, highlighting best practice and seeking views on how best to tackle the issues. Download as a pdf.
The NHS Childcare Strategy
The NHS Childcare Strategy was produced in response to the growing need for accessible, high-quality childcare for NHS staff. It was launched in 2000 to provide 150 additional onsite nurseries. It also provides advice on choosing childcare and contains an NHS Childcare Toolkit, produced in conjunction with the Daycare Trust which discusses different types of childcare and the services available to pre-school and school-aged children. Appropriate childcare improves retention of NHS staff, reduces absenteeism, improves morale and increases productivity. Read more here.
Modernising Medical Careers
www.mmc.nhs.uk
The NHS has established a Modernising Medical Careers initiative in response to a 2002 consultation paper on modernising and focusing the training of doctors and their career structure. It endeavours to improve the opportunities available for doctors who decide to take a career break and encourage fair and equal opportunities throughout doctors’ careers.
Women and Equality Unit
www.womenandequalityunit.gov.uk
The Women and Equality Unit supports the Ministers for Women, which promotes equality and diversity in the workplace through initiatives that support a variety of needs facing women and men. Their Women at Work section provides interesting information on the rights of employees with a focus on rights at work, returning to work and pay (see reference 54). Their current initiatives include a Work-Life Balance Campaign, which is trying to make it easier for men and women to balance work and home commitments by encouraging employers to strengthen initiatives that would support their employee’s responsibilities.
The Athena Project
www.athenaproject.org.uk
The Athena Project was established in 1999 by the UK higher education funding councils, UniversitiesUK and Office of Science and Technology, Department of Trade and Industry. Its aims are the advancement and promotion of the careers of women in science, engineering and technology (SET) in higher education and research to achieve a significant increase in the number of women recruited to top posts. In achieving its aims Athena has worked in partnership with universities, research councils and SET professional societies (see reference 55).