How to survive as a woman in a man's world.

Abstract

Women in cardiology have to fight hard but can do it in style says Sabine Ernst ![Graphic][1] Gender never featured in the decisions of Dr Sabine Ernst, a cardiac electrophysiologist with expertise in complex arrhythmias. Today she is a consultant cardiologist and lead for electrophysiology (EP) research at the Royal Brompton and Harefield NHS Foundation Trust in London, UK, and a Reader at Imperial College London. But having found herself in what is still largely a man’s world, she has had to fight harder for promotion and still finds herself progressing more slowly than male colleagues. ‘In my academic career, if I had waited for someone to invite me to do something, I would still be waiting,’ says Ernst. During her training in EP Ernst initially received good support and mentoring from her chief in Hamburg, Professor Karl-Heinz Kuck. ‘We worked well together and I truly enjoyed the experience’, recalls Ernst. ‘This continued up to a point where I had achieved a certain level and then I had to fight for further promotion.’ Ernst was already doing the work of a consultant. She had performed first in man procedures, published extensively, ran an entire lab, had PhD students, and led the department’s educational courses. She had even pioneered remote magnetic navigation and used advanced 3D-mapping for patients with congenital heart disease, complex anatomy and arrhythmias. But she had not been promoted to any kind of leadership position and was not a consultant. ‘That was really tough because I had fought my way to the second highest academic title you can get in Germany at that stage but I still was … [1]: /embed/inline-graphic-1.gif