The cover of a small blank journal I saw in a gift shop recently contained the phrase “Wherever women gather together, ‘failure is impossible’ ” alongside a drawing of suffragette Susan B. Anthony. The power of that phrase grabbed me, and I bought it.
“Failure is impossible” was part of a speech Anthony gave in 1906, part of her decades-long fight to win women the right to vote. So in a way it was about gathering, at the polls. The 19th Amendment passed in 1919 and was ratified a year later.
Women should come together in all fields, but particularly in healthcare. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, eight in 10 people who work in healthcare are women. That compares with five in 10 among all professions.
Yet one look at the organizational chart of most healthcare employers and it is obvious that the leadership does not reflect the workforce. At a time when healthcare organizations are trying to better reflect the communities they serve, shouldn’t they also work to better reflect the internal community they serve, namely their employees?
Training programs, networking events and mentoring programs, both formal and informal, are critical. So too is finding ways to build personal networks, share experiences and talk about critical issues.
Each year, Modern Healthcare honors women leaders who have made strides in the industry. Each summer we host a Women Leaders in Healthcare Conference to celebrate the honorees and provide an opportunity for women at all stages of their career to learn from one another. This year it is July 16 in Chicago. But it is not your typical industry event.
It’s personal, and it simultaneously can be maddening, motivational and educational to listen as women discuss not just the industry’s challenges but their own challenges — and successes — as they’ve climbed the ladder. Our hope is that women use all opportunities to gather and come away with a sense of empowerment, determined to improve themselves and their organizations.
