Medical Women and Leadership
– a perspective of a final year medical student
According to Wikipedia, the knowledge base of the 21st century, leadership can refer to “those entities that perform one or more acts of leading, the ability to affect human behaviour so as to accomplish a mission, or influencing a group of people to move towards its goal setting or goal achievement”.1 Leadership in medicine is vital in this age of dynamic practice, with new diagnostic and therapeutic developments occurring constantly, and with the increasing emphasis on accountability and transparency in medical practice. Women in leadership roles have become more prominent in society over the years, in areas such as politics and business. However, in medicine as in these other fields, the increasing number of women studying and practising is not equally matched by a corresponding increase in women in leadership positions.
