Becker's Hospital Review

27 WOMEN'S LEADERSHIP Emergency medicine trailblazer Dr. Ethel Weinberg dies at 83 By Emily Rappleye E thel Schwartz Weinberg, MD, the phy- sician who helped create the specialty of emergency medicine, died March 4 of melanoma at age 83, e Philadelphia In- quirer reported. Dr. Weinberg was an anesthesiologist, leader in academic medical education and advocate for women in medicine. Seeking to create part- time pathways for physician mothers to con- tinue their training in medicine, Dr. Weinberg championed the idea of creating an "acute care medicine" fellowship in emergency rooms, ul- timately securing approval from the American Medical Association for the first internship. She held a variety of leadership roles in aca- demic medicine over the course of her career, including dean of Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, senior associate dean at Temple University School of Medicine in Philadelphia and dean of Baystate Medical Center in Springfield, Mass. She was appointed to the National Library of Medicine's Board of Regents by President Richard Nixon in 1974 and founded the Alliance of Independent Medical Centers in 1989. She earned her med- ical degree at the former Hahnemann Medical College and completed her residency in an- esthesiology at omas Jefferson University Hospital, both in Philadelphia. Based on an interview with the U.S. National Library of Medicine, here are three quotes on leadership and being a woman in medicine from Dr. Weinberg: On mentorship: "As I think about [who my mentors were], I note that all of the examples that come to mind are men. I would like to think that I have been a mentor also." On obstacles: "In some ways it was the fact of being a woman. For example, I knew of no women surgeons when I was making a deci- sion about a specialty. I knew there were some, but I also knew that it would be extremely diffi- cult to find a good residency that would accept me, and I was already married and not very mobile. … I should add that being a woman also opened some interesting doors for me." On creating opportunities for women: "I was struck that women needed some form of training that did not require the traditional working hours of a resident and where there were part-time jobs available. It seemed that 'acute care medicine' in emergency rooms (they were just beginning to hire physicians for coverage) was a feasible idea." n Gender pay differences may shrink under transparency laws, study finds By Morgan Haefner L arge-scale adoption of pay transparency laws could reduce persistent pay disparities between men and women, accord- ing to a National Bureau of Economic Research paper. For the study, researchers from Princeton (N.J.) University, the University of Toronto in Canada, and Memorial University of New- foundland examined how public sector salary disclosure laws af- fected university faculty salaries in Canada. The researchers ana- lyzed data from Canada's national statistical agency that contained salaries, demographic characteristics and job-related variables of academic employees. Generally, the researchers found the gender pay gap between men and women fell by about 30 percent under Canadian laws that require disclosure of faculty salaries above thresholds rang- ing between $50,000 and $125,000. The researchers also found salary disclosure laws had a greater effect on gender pay gaps at universities that were unionized. "On balance, the findings from our study suggest that large-scale adoption of pay transparency does have the potential to reduce gender differences in pay," the study authors wrote in an article for the Harvard Business Review. "Though our analysis is limited to relatively high-paid faculty in public universities, we believe that it is possible that wider adoption of transparency laws could bring about broader change in social norms that favor gender equality, and indirectly affect the pay gap (even in organizations that aren't required to disclose salaries)." n Female board directors rise to leadership positions faster than men By Emily Rappleye W omen who serve on boards typically rise to a leadership role like chairperson or lead director about 20 months faster than men, according to a study of about 6,000 public companies conducted by Diligent Insti- tute, the research arm of a board management software company. Women serve on boards for 6.31 years on average before taking on a leadership role, compared to men's 8.02 years. This may be because women on boards are highly engaged. Twenty-one percent of board committee chairs are women — nearly equal to the 22 percent of board members who are women. The report pointed to this as "evidence that com- panies are actively seeking fresh perspectives in leadership roles." However, with women representing just 22 per- cent of board members and 7 percent of board chairs, boards still need to improve gender parity. "We need more than only 'a few good women' to help companies reach their full potential for mod- ern governance," the report concluded. n

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