Reasons and remedies for under-representation of women in medical leadership roles: a qualitative study from Australia

OBJECTIVE: To elicit medical leaders' views on reasons and remedies for the under-representation of women in medical leadership roles.

DESIGN: Qualitative study using semistructured interviews with medical practitioners who work in medical leadership roles. Interviews were transcribed verbatim and transcripts were analysed using thematic analysis.

SETTING: Public hospitals, private healthcare providers, professional colleges and associations and government organisations in Australia.

PARTICIPANTS: 30 medical practitioners who hold formal medical leadership roles.

RESULTS: Despite dramatic increases in the entry of women into medicine in Australia, there remains a gross under-representation of women in formal, high-level medical leadership positions. The male-dominated nature of medical leadership in Australia was widely recognised by interviewees. A small number of interviewees viewed gender disparities in leadership roles as a 'natural' result of women's childrearing responsibilities. However, most interviewees believed that preventable gender-related barriers were impeding women's ability to achieve and thrive in medical leadership roles. Interviewees identified a range of potential barriers across three broad domains-perceptions of capability, capacity and credibility. As a counter to these, interviewees pointed to a range of benefits of women adopting these roles, and proposed a range of interventions that would support more women entering formal medical leadership roles.

CONCLUSIONS: While women make up more than half of medical graduates in Australia today, significant barriers restrict their entry into formal medical leadership roles. These constraints have internalised, interpersonal and structural elements that can be addressed through a range of strategies for advancing the role of women in medical leadership. These findings have implications for individual medical practitioners and health services, as well as professional colleges and associations.

The sex factor : media representations of women and men in Australia

Guest edited and with an introduction by Janine Little, this collection of five scholarly articles deals with the Australian media's representation of women in coverage of some of the most controversial issues in contemporary society. The authors are from the disciplines of sociology, journalism and literary studies, with four from Deakin University and one from Flinders University, Adelaide. This enables the monograph to consider a range of phenomena arising from the way that Australia situates women and men as media subjects

Symbolic interactions and the development of women leaders in higher education

The under-representation of women in higher education (HE) leadership is a persistent global phenomenon. The purpose of this research is to re-examine this issue through symbolic interactionism (SI). Eight women aspiring to leadership were invited to participate in semi-structured interviews after attending a leadership programme specifically designed to enhance their leadership prospects. Analysis indicated ambiguities and contradictions that surround notions of leadership, in particular how the participants position themselves and are positioned in their workplace. This was evidenced by the meaning they attributed to: recognizing a leader; interactions with existing leadership; and speculation regarding their leadership capacity. Gendered notions were apparent in their constructed meanings. Similarity attraction was also evident, with men being observed as ‘paying it forward’, therefore facilitating promotion. Formal leadership training was advocated rather than experiential processes.

Participation of women in engineering: challenges and productive interventions

Building science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) skills in students at all school levels is essential to building the next generation of engineering workers and engineering skills. Despite more than two decades of initiatives, the under-representation of women in engineering has been a longstanding concern in Australia. This is related to concerns about levels of participation in engineering overall, and to current concerns about attitudes to and participation in STEM subjects and career pathways generally, and for women in the natural and physical sciences and higher level mathematics at school, university and the workplace. This review analyses factors affecting the participation of women in engineering, covering the full extent of the STEM pipeline across the schooling years but focusing particularly on girls’ exposure to and engagement with engineering across those years.

The silent witness: art as a mode of representation of voices and visions of how,as a woman, I build borders and bridges in enacting my identit(ies)

Feminist theorists unveil how women negotiate their identities within complex entanglements of social constructs such as race, ethnicity, religious belief and practices, cultural tradition, and values. Feminist artists use subjective experiences that shape representation and performativity in empowering women to have a ‘voice’. In this paper, I focus on ‘breaking silences’ through series of my artworks (as part of my PhD research) that represent self-narratives as subjectivities of life experiences, contingencies, and cultural shifts through migration transitions as new ways of figuration and reflection on such issues. I look through discourses of gender differences, nomadic subjectivity, and new ways of figurations (Braidotti 2011, 10) and the affect theory (Gregg and Seigworth 2010), and the concept of giving ‘voice’ (Berlant 2011). Such discourses frame how I interrogate and represent my gendered identities.

Shifts in media images of women appearance and social status from 1960 to 2010: a content analysis of beauty advertisements in two Australian magazines

Ageing well and successful ageing have become important themes to describe how older individuals should keep ageing at bay. Products and services aimed at controlling ageing have become associated with ageing well. In this study we aimed to analyse the representation of older women in advertisements specific to appearance and ageing. In particular, we sought to explore how ageing for women was presented in the media over a period 50 years and when advertisements began to use the term 'anti-ageing'. A content analysis of 710 advertisements from two prominent Australian women's magazines, from 1960 to 2010, was conducted. Analyses showed that advertisements provided a narrow range of images representing women's physical appearance. The underlying messages were that ageing is problematic and that it had become unforgivable to show any signs of ageing. Text contained in advertisements for beauty products from the two chosen Australian magazines often gave specific and prescriptive advice to women on ways to avoid losing their youthful appearance. It was concluded that media relay powerful messages to spread and modify cultural beliefs informing individuals of a range of options that propose liberation from the problem of ageing.

The experiences and adjustments of women following their first acute myocardial infarction

Very little is known about cardiovascular disease (CVD) in women and their specific needs throughout their recovery process. This study aimed to explore the experiences and adjustments of women following their first AMI. Naturalistic inquiry was used and six women were interviewed post their first AMI. Two major themes were identified: (1) 'the initial experience/event' which identifies events and emotions leading up to, and during, the hospital admission; and (2) 'support: for who and how' exploring the importance of support throughout the recovery process.

The women in this study did not see themselves at risk of an AMI regardless of their lifestyles and when it did occur they adopted a variety of coping mechanisms in order to adjust to their trauma. The findings highlight the need for an increase in community awareness and education surrounding the risk factors of heart disease and its signs and symptoms, to minimize delayed hospital presentations.

A pictorial representation of peristomal architecture

The terminology associated with the use of peristomes in the identification and classification of mosses is cumbersome and difficult to understand. This paper provides a pictorial explanation of peristomal architecture with its associated terminology, such as nematodontous and arthrodontous peristomes, and the division of the latter into diplolepideous and haplolepideous peristomes.

Managing the family`s health: preferences and experiences of women with different work and family arrangements.

Balancing the needs of work and family is a subject of much debate.The purpose of this research was to explore how families manage their children's health within the context of different work and family arrangements.In-depth interviews were conducted with women who were at home full time (8) or in paid work over 30 hours a week (7). Women had at least one child under the five years of age. Findings revealed there was no simple relationship between women's working arrangements and how they managed their children's health. All women, irrespective of their working arrangements, held similar preferences for managing their children's health.However, most women experienced either time or financial constraints that meant they had to compromise their original preferences. In some cases this meant children missed out on receiving health services. Workplace support, extended family support and general satisfaction with work and family arrangements appeared to be important factors for the small number of women who had no problems in managing their children's health. The implications of these findings are discussed.

Internal representation of movement in children with developmental coordination disorder : a mental rotation task

Recent studies show that children with developmental coordination disorder (DCD) have difficulties in generating an accurate visuospatial representation of an intended action, which are shown by deficits in motor imagery. This study sought to test this hypothesis further using a mental rotation paradigm. It was predicted that children with DCD would not conform to the typical pattern of responding when required to imagine movement of their limbs. Participants included 16 children with DCD and 18 control children; mean age for the DCD group was 10 years 4 months, and for controls 10 years. The task required children to judge the handedness of single-hand images that were presented at angles between 0° and 180° at 45° intervals in either direction. Results were broadly consistent with the hypothesis above. Responses of the control children conformed to the typical pattern of mental rotation: a moderate trade-off between response time and angle of rotation. The response pattern for the DCD group was less typical, with a small trade-off function. Response accuracy did not differ between groups. It was suggested that children with DCD, unlike controls, do not automatically enlist motor imagery when performing mental rotation, but rely on an alternative object-based strategy that preserves speed and accuracy. This occurs because these children manifest a reduced ability to make imagined transformations from an egocentric or first-person perspective.

Multiple barriers to obtaining child support : experiences of women leaving violent partners

This article reports on a study which explores how policies and practices shape the experiences of single parents when seeking and using child support from violent ex-partners. The findings of this and similar research studies on violence, child support and poverty indicate that the receipt of child support is a multi-step process plagued with multiple barriers.

Returning to work: exploring the experiences of women with acute coronary syndromes

Aims: The aim of this study was to explore the transition experiences of Australian women in resuming paid employment after an acute coronary syndrome (ACS) event. Background: Until recently cardiovascular research has focused predominantly on men but this is changing and research exploring women’s experiences of ACS has increased. Despite knowing that many women do not resume paid employment following an ACS event, little is known about the experience of those women who do, even though it is understood that returning to the previous level of employment after an ACS event is a positive outcome. Design: An exploratory qualitative approach underpinned by naturalistic inquiry was undertaken. Methods: A purposive sample of seven women who had experienced their first ACS event 12 months ago was selected. Each woman was interviewed using a semi–structured format and their interviews were transcribed verbatim. Thematic analysis of the transcript set and conceptual mapping were employed to formulate key themes. Findings: All women (mean age 52.6 years) resumed paid employment at various stages during their recovery, but reported similar transition processes. Three key themes representing this process were identified: primary motivation; influence through guidance and support; and resuming paid employment. Conclusions: Study findings revealed that these women required substantial support from family, friends and employers, with ongoing guidance from health professionals to return to paid work. The time frames for their return varied and some modified their roles within the workforce to enable them to return to paid work. However, formal cardiac rehabilitation did not appear to have a significant impact on these participants' decisions to return to work. They felt that more information about this decision may have been helpful if given at the time of cardiac rehabilitation.

Towards a digital representation of physical phenomena to assess comfort in future environments

This paper presents the concept and a test implementation of a digital representation of the physical world designed to assess comfort quality in
future environments. An integrated set of physical phenomena is modeled three-dimensionally to investigate the dynamic behavior of design objects
holistically.

The formulation supports the integration of computational simulation in the performance-based design process. It employs the principles of
geometrical and physical selfcontainedness to avoid that complex geometrical and physical circumstances have to be specified at design time. The concepts of congeneric cells and congeneric conjunctions are
introduced to simulate various physical phenomena simultaneously with a uniformly structured set of equations.

The concept, the prototype implementation and selected test cases are presented. Although it was not possible to implement all features and model parts completely, the research and the discussion of its achievements make valuable contributions towards more effective integration of computational simulation in the performance-based design process.