Becker's Hospital Review

48 WOMEN'S LEADERSHIP POPULATION HEALTH It will take 135+ years to close gender pay gap because of pandemic By Hannah Mitchell A n additional 36 years have been add- ed to the estimated time it will take to close the gender pay gap, bringing the total to 135 years, according to a March 30 re- port published by the World Economic Forum. e widening gap in gender pay has been at- tributed to the pandemic because women are more frequently employed in jobs hardest hit by lockdowns and face additional pressures providing child care at home. Seven things to know: 1. Closing the global gender pay gap has in- creased by a generation from 99.5 years to 135.6 years. At the current pace, gender gaps can potentially be closed in 52.1 years in West- ern Europe and 61.5 years in North America. 2. In the Global Gender Gap Index rankings, the U.S. ranked in 16th in Western Europe and North America. 3. e lowest income gap between genders is in Sweden with 18 percent. e gender gap in the U.S. is 35 percent. 4. Global projections suggest that 5 percent of women lost their jobs during the pandemic, compared to 3.9 percent of men. 5. Data suggest that when care establishments closed, housework, child care and elder care re- sponsibilities fell disproportionately on wom- en, contributing to higher levels of stress and lower levels of productivity. 6. Gender gaps are more likely in sectors that require disruptive technical skills. In cloud computing, women make up 14 percent of the workforce; in engineering, 20 percent; and in data and artificial intelligence, 32 percent. 7. Women are less likely to hold managerial positions. In the U.S., women held only 42 per- cent of senior and managerial positions, fol- lowed by Sweden at 40 percent and the United Kingdom at 36.8 percent. n 5 ways adding women to the C-suite can improve your hospital By Hannah Mitchell C ompanies with a higher share of women in C-suite positions are more profitable, more socially responsible, and have better safety and customer experience, according to research published April 6 in Harvard Business Review. The study examined how companies changed their strategic approach after adding women to their C-suites. Researchers tracked research and devel- opment expenses, merger and acquisitions rates, and letters to sharehold- ers over 13 years to determine how women were improving companies. Five ways women improve business performance: 1. Women are less likely to care about traditional business practices and are more open to change. Communication surrounding openness to change increased by 10 percent after a woman was appointed. 2. On the contrary, communication surrounding increased risk-taking in strategies decreased by 14 percent. 3. Firms shifted their focus from mergers and acquisitions to research and development. 4. The influence of female executives was greater when they were integrat- ed into top management teams. 5. Women who make it to executive positions have had to be more careful when weighing the benefits of innovative proposals with the risks of poten- tial failures than their male counterparts. n Brigham and Women's nursing chief launches podcast on resiliency By Erica Carbajal M addy Pearson, DNP, RN, chief nursing officer at Boston-based Brigham and Women's Hospital, has started the "Resiliency Road- map" podcast focused on how nurses can build resiliency and practice self-care, WGBH, a local NPR station, reported March 31. Dr. Pearson hosts the series, which features interviews with nurses and oth- er experts on topics such as sleep health, moral distress, trauma-informed care and joy. Given that nurses spend 95 percent of their time at patients' bedside, the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic were particularly difficult for them, which is part of what inspired the podcast, Dr. Pearson said. "Nursing has a very special place, a very special vision and voice as we care for patients," Dr. Pearson told WGBH. "Nurses know the patients so much deeper and greater. So the impact, then, of the pandemic on the bedside nurse, on the clinical nurse … was that much greater. And that's why it was so important that we all speak with this nursing lens, and this nursing voice, and kind of bring light to that." Podcast episodes are released weekly on Wednesdays. n

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