countless individuals who highly value the ability to anonymously ask questions. These systems generate useful discussions around important issues, such as dealing with self-doubt and improving resilience. Often, a simple encouraging word is all that is required to boost an individual’s confidence to continue pursuing her dream.
I urge female and male IR leaders to reach out to female medical students, trainees and colleagues and offer encouragement, advice and perhaps an opportunity (
bit.ly/2Mzy6Yp).
Women’s integral value to the IR team Given the benefits of a diverse workforce and the effectiveness of female physicians compared to their male colleagues in respect to mortality rates and other outcomes (Tsugawa et al. 2017; Wallis et al. 2017), all specialties should be recruiting female physicians to join their teams. The benefits of a diverse workforce are well known: inclusive companies outperform the S&P 500 index, attract top talent rich in creativity and innovation, and can better anticipate a broad range of customer needs (Spalluto 2018). Since women make over 90 percent of their family’s health care decisions (Spalluto 2018), female IRs have an edge at understanding and meeting the needs and expectations of the female health care consumer. As the minimally invasive options for patients grow to include gynecologic, urologic, gastrointestinal and breast procedures, female patients are likely to more often request a female physician.
Conclusion Despite the relative paucity of female physicians in IR, the integrated IR/ DR residency program affords a new opportunity at breaking the glass floor by providing dedicated exposure earlier in women’s medical training to the field of interventional radiology. It is important to offer a wide variety of educational and mentorship opportunities to medical students ranging from local interest groups and online support groups to larger scale societal efforts.
Attempts at breaking the glass ceiling are more challenging, as unconscious bias and societal expectations can take generations to change. Family- friendly policies benefit both men and women and will encourage a more diverse spectrum of leaders, resulting in innovation, creativity, novel solutions and improved decision-making in the organization (Kruskal et al. 2018).
We can best break the glass cage through a social network of peers, excellent mentors/supervisors and other self-/professional development strategies including workshops, books and podcasts.
Today, no medical student should be actively discouraged from applying to IR on the sole basis of being female. No woman should be denied employment or promotion on the sole basis of being female. We women must work together and with our male colleagues to break the glass barriers that continue to surround us.
References
1. Bluth, E.I. et al., 2015. The 2015 ACR Commission on Human Resources Workforce Survey. Journal of the American College of Radiology: JACR, 12(11), 1137–1141.
2. Camargo, A., Liu, L. & Yousem, D.M., 2017. Sexual Harassment in Radiology. Journal of the American College of Radiology, 14(8), 1094–1099.
3. Charles, M. & Bradley, K., 2009. Indulging our gendered selves? Sex segregation by field of study in 44 countries. AJS; American journal of sociology, 114(4), 924–976.
4. Dauer, L.T. et al., 2015. Occupational Radiation Protection of Pregnant or Potentially Pregnant Workers in IR: A Joint Guideline of the Society of Interventional Radiology and the Cardiovascular and Interventional Radiological Society of Europe. Journal of Vascular and Interventional Radiology, 26(2), 171–181.
5. Depietro, D. et al., 2017. Increasing first-year medical student exposure to interventional radiology: a pilot-study of integrating IR into the gross anatomy lab. Journal of Vascular and Interventional Radiology, 28(2), S21.
6. Englander, M.J. et al., 2017. Society of Interventional Radiology Position Statement on Parental Leave. Journal of vascular and interventional radiology: JVIR, 28(7), 993–994.
7. Heitkamp, D.E., Norris, C.D. & Rissing, S.M., 2017. The Illusion of Choice: Gender Segregation and the Challenge of Recruiting Women to Radiology. Journal of the American College of Radiology, 14(7), 991–994.
8. Hill, E.J.R. & Giles, J.A., 2014. Career decisions and gender: the illusion of choice? Perspectives on medical education, 3(3), 151–154.
9. Kruskal, J.B. et al., 2018. Fostering Diversity and Inclusion: A Summary of the 2017 Intersociety Summer Conference. Journal of the American College of Radiology: JACR.
10. Ladd, L.M. et al., 2017. A Mentorship and Networking Group for Women in Radiology. Journal of the American College of Radiology: JACR, 14(7), 987–990.
11. Lautenberger, D.M. et al., 2014. The State of Women in Academic Medicine: The Pipeline and Pathways to Leadership, Washington, DC: American Association of Medical Colleges.
12. Perez, Y.V. et al., 2016. A Glance at Gender- Specific Preferences Influencing Interventional Radiology Selection. Journal of vascular and interventional radiology: JVIR, 27(1), 142–143.e1.
13. Sandberg, S., 2013. Lean In, Knopf.
14. Spalluto, L.B., 2018. The Purse Strings of Radiology. Journal of the American College of Radiology, 15(2), 362–363.
15. Surawicz, C.M., 2016. Women in Leadership: Why So Few and What to Do About It. Journal of the American College of Radiology: JACR, 13(12 Pt A), 1433–1437.
16. Taylor, C.S. et al., 2018. Generating Medical Student Interest in the Field of Radiology. Journal of the American College of Radiology: JACR, 15(2), 340–342.
17. Tsugawa, Y. et al., 2017. Comparison of Hospital Mortality and Readmission Rates for Medicare Patients Treated by Male vs Female Physicians. JAMA Internal Medicine, 177(2), 206.
18. Wallis, C.J. et al., 2017. Comparison of postoperative outcomes among patients treated by male and female surgeons: a population based matched cohort study. BMJ (Clinical research ed.), 359, j4366.
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