Abstract
Background: Gender inequalities have been identified as important derailment factors for health workforce and health system sustainability. Literature holds responsible a list of gendered barriers faced by female health workforce. However, there is a gap in the evidence based research on women leaders' own perceptions of barriers to leading positions advancement. This study aims to explore leadership barriers perceived by women healthcare leaders within country's context; research focused on Greece due to country's poor performance on gender equality index and current economic turbulence. Study supplements survey data and provides orientation for further gender sensitive research in health workforce development through country's specificity lens to better inform education and policy makers.Methods: The best-worst object case survey method was used, applying an online questionnaire designed in Qualtrics. The online questionnaire was sent to 30 purposively invited participants. Respondents were asked to tick the most and the least important barriers to women's leadership in provided choice scenarios. Descriptive data analysis was used to understand and interpret the results.Results: Women leaders perceived stereotypes, work/life balance, lack of equal career advancement, lack of confidence, gender gap and gender bias to be the barriers with the greatest relative importance in constraining opportunities for pursuing leading positions in Greek healthcare setting. Twenty more barriers were identified and ranked lower in relative importance. The results are considered exploratory and not to obtain population based outcomes.Conclusion: This exploratory study reports the perceived barriers of women leaders in pursuing leading positions within Greek healthcare context. The findings point mainly to organizational and socio-cultural related barriers potentially aggravated by country's unfortunate current economic turbulence. Further extensive research is required to establish grounded conclusions and better inform education and policy makers in developing gender sensitive strategies to sustainable health workforce development.
Highlights
Gender inequalities in the global healthcare workforce have been identified as important derailment factors for health workforce and health systems’ sustainability
The added value of women’s leadership in health and healthcare has been addressed extensively by literature [3, 4, 6,7,8,9,10,11]; the excellent qualities and results to health systems outcomes both at universal health coverage and at national and community level have been evidenced extensively; the importance of gender equality and diversity of health workforce have been acknowledged by scholarship and global agencies, such as WHO [12], OECD [1], as a governance priority to strengthen health services, professional education and employment systems and make health systems responsive to life events and societal challenges
The aim of this paper is to provide the findings of a small exploratory study sought to discover the perceptions of women leaders on perceived barriers to women leadership advancement within country’s healthcare context; research focused on Greece due to country’s poor performance on gender equality index and current economic turbulence
Summary
Gender inequalities in the global healthcare workforce have been identified as important derailment factors for health workforce and health systems’ sustainability. The added value of women’s leadership in health and healthcare has been addressed extensively by literature [3, 4, 6,7,8,9,10,11]; the excellent qualities and results to health systems outcomes both at universal health coverage and at national and community level have been evidenced extensively; the importance of gender equality and diversity of health workforce have been acknowledged by scholarship and global agencies, such as WHO [12], OECD [1], as a governance priority to strengthen health services, professional education and employment systems and make health systems responsive to life events and societal challenges. Study supplements survey data and provides orientation for further gender sensitive research in health workforce development through country’s specificity lens to better inform education and policy makers
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