Medics highlight underrepresentation of women in field

WOMEN hoping to overcome personal and workplace barriers to lead successful careers in medicine are being invited to hear from a group of inspirational speakers at the University of Sheffield’s Medical School on Tuesday 3 March.

Hosted by the Sheffield Women in Medicine Network (SWiM), ‘Building Your Future - SWiM dives in with the Entrepreneurs’, will be a unique opportunity for women to hear personal stories from a diverse group of successful entrepreneurs and share experiences.

More than half of all new medical students are female and 40 per cent of all doctors are women, yet few women hold top positions on NHS boards or as medical directors. Since it launched last year, SWiM has played a leading role in tackling underrepresentation of women in medicine, attracting attention from key influencers within the field.

The Sheffield Women in Medicine is a professional forum launched by a group of junior and senior doctors at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and academics from the University of Sheffield in February 2014.

Dr Alenka Brooks, a specialist registrar in gastroenterology at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, said: “Women in medicine face many challenges in reaching their full career potential, which are often compounded by complexities of care-giving roles whilst trying to pursue demanding, high-powered jobs.

Since we launched last year the Network has gone from strength to strength, and our events have provided an invaluable source of inspiration for hundreds of women interested in furthering their medical careers. This free, informal event will give junior and senior doctors the chance to hear from women and men who have successfully reached the top of their careers so they can share experiences on how to get started, what skills they need and what pitfalls they need to avoid.

The event will take place at the Medical School’s Lecture Theatre 1 from 5.30pm onwards and will be hosted by Professor Wendy Tindale OBE, Scientific Director of Medical Imaging and Medical Physics at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

Other speakers include Adrian Allen Commercial Director of the Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC) with Boeing; Pam Garside, who has created her own management consultancy, Newhealth and teaches at Cambridge in the Judge Business School; Lucy Rocca; founder of Soberistas an online network supporting women with drinking issues and Professor Dame Pamela Shaw Professor of Neurology and Director of the Sheffield Institute of Translational Neuroscience (SITraN).

The Sheffield Women in Medicine have secured funding from Health Education Yorkshire and the Humber for two leadership fellows, who start in post in April this year to further raise awareness of the Network and its aims.

To register for the free ‘Building Your Future - SWiM dives in with the Entrepreneurs’ visit http://tinyurl.com/SWiM03March2015 or email [email protected].

Further information about the Network can be found at www.womeninmedicine.co.uk or by following @SheffieldSWiM on Twitter.

Source: Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust