AMA Gender Equity Summit Report 2019

KEY ACTION AREAS

1. Establish targets for gender diversity in representation and leadership.
2. Report and publish gender equity data.
3. Actively encourage women to apply for leadership roles.
4. Provide equitable access to leave entitlements for all genders.
5. Improve access and uptake of parental leave and flexible work and training arrangements for all genders.
6. Provide interstate portability of leave entitlements.
7. Implement transparent selection criteria and processes that disarm gender bias in entry into training and employment.
8. Provide access to breastfeeding facilities and childcare at exams, conferences and work.
9. Identify gender equity champions (and celebrate women in medicine).

NEXT STEPS

The AMA is committed to working collaboratively with other organisations who are dedicated to reducing bias and achieving diversity, equity and inclusion, for women and other underrepresented groups in the medical profession.

While the Summit priorities are not exhaustive or binding, we hope this Report will form the basis of practical actions and ongoing discussions that individuals, employers, training and professional bodies can pursue to make a real difference to achieving gender diversity, equity and inclusion in medicine.

The AMA is asking all organisations who attended the Summit to adopt and report on three actions from the Summit with the goal of encouraging and supporting gender diversity within their sphere of influence.

In 2019 the AMA has committed to:

1. Adopt a target of 40 per cent women, 40 per cent men, 20 per cent flexible for all AMA Councils, Committees and Boards, with a gender diversity target of women holding 50 per cent of Federal AMA representative positions overall, for attainment by 2021.
2. Collate and report on gender data annually regarding composition of leadership positions within state and federal AMA bodies, Councils and Committees, speaker invitations at National Conference and Federal AMA recognition awards, and disseminating the findings to AMA Federal, State and Territory Councils and Boards annually.
3. Develop an AMA Diversity and Inclusion Plan, Including practical steps to improve diversity in membership and in the medical profession more broadly.
4. Provide funding for breastfeeding mothers in Federal AMA representative roles to bring a carer for their child to official representative activities.

The AMA would like to thank all Summit participants for providing their expertise and insight into the cultural and systemic barriers to achieving gender equity in medicine and what practical actions can be taken to address them.

If you have any comments on the Summit report, please do not hesitate to send them through to the AMA at scross@ama.com.au

"Strong and enduring changes to values, culture, and decision-making must come from senior leadership and management, and flow down through the hierachies."

- Dr Tony Bartone

"To be clear, this is not just a women's issue. Women feel the brunt of it professionally, but gender inequity sells all of us short on one side of the work-life equation or the other."

- Dr Tessa Kennedy 

“Whether it is taking action on closing pay gaps or setting targets for men’s engagement in flexible work or setting targets for recruiting women and men in non-traditional roles.  I cannot stress just how important it is to analyse your own data – you don’t know what you don’t know.”

 - Libby Lyons 

“The status quo on gender equality can lead to low expectations of women’s representation. At times, we assume obstacles to women’s advancement are inevitable or insurmountable. They are not, but standard approaches are not enough.”

 - Janet Menzies