Becker's Hospital Review

29 WOMEN'S LEADERSHIP In healthcare, women hold 25% of board seats: 5 findings to know for 2021 By Georgina Gonzalez T he percentage of women on boards has grown in 2021, marking the most considerable one-year growth in the past decade. However, gender parity has still not been reached, an October report found. 50/50 Women on Boards released its annual report Oct. 5 that analyzes the number of women on corporate boards of Russell 3000 Index companies. It showed that while progress has been made, it is slow, with women holding 25 percent of board positions in healthcare. Five other findings from the report: 1. The healthcare industry has the most companies with no women on boards. 2. Women gained 771 board seats this year, nearly two- thirds of which were added seats not requiring men to give up their positions to make space. 3. Only 7 percent of companies have gender balanced boards with 50-50 distribution of men and women on the board. 4. Only 4.5 percent of board directors are women of col- or and 12 percent of board directors are people of color. There is a lack of data for this parameter, though, with only 17 percent of directors self-reporting their race. 5. The top 100 companies on the Russell 3000 have 32.1 percent women on their boards. n Can I get an extension? How men and women treat workplace deadlines differently By Georgina Gonzalez R esearch has found that women are less like- ly than their male counterparts to negotiate deadline extensions, The Wall Street Journal reported Oct. 30. Previous research has shown that women take on more administrative duties at work, as well as carry the bur- den of doing the majority of care and domestic labor at home. On top of that, women reported feeling less comfortable asking for extensions at work, regardless of experience or job status. The researchers from Boston-based Harvard Business School and Columbus-based Ohio State University's Fisher College of Business said women were more concerned about appearing incompetent than men. They felt as though they didn't want to burden others with their requests, increasing feelings of guilt and re- ducing the willingness of women to ask for more time. To combat these feelings and ease pressure on wom- en in the workplace, the authors suggested several actions employers could take. Communicating clearly when deadlines are flexible, emphasizing that asking for more time signals commitment, not incompetence, and setting formal policies on workplace extensions could all help women feel more confident asking for extensions. n 11 physician specialties ranked by female representation By Cailey Gleeson O bstetrics and gynecology is the physician specialty with the greatest female representation while orthopedic surgery has the least, according to the Accreditation Council for Gradu- ate Medical Education. e organization on Oct. 11 released its 2020-21 Data Resource Book, the most comprehensive resource on data for graduate medical education in the U.S. Researchers gathered data on the time period between July 1, 2020, and June 30, 2021. ere are 12,420 accredited programs in the U.S., with 149,200 active fellows and residents in the programs. Here is how 11 specialities stacked up in terms of female representation in 2021: 1. Obstetrics and gynecology - 84.6 percent 2. Pediatrics - 71.1 percent 3. Child neurology - 68.7 percent 4. Medical genetics and genomics - 55.9 percent 5. Psychiatry - 49.1 percent 6. Nuclear medicine - 33.3 percent 7. Radiation oncology - 30.5 percent 8. Urology - 28.5 percent 9. Interventional radiology (integrated) - 22.0 percent 10. Neurological surgery - 20.4 percent 11. Orthopedic surgery - 16.7 percent n

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