Championing women in medicine

Championing women in medicine

The NSW Doctor spoke with winner of the 2022 AMA Women in Health Award, Dr Ashna Basu, on gender equity and supporting women in medicine. 

Upon receiving the 2022 AMA Women in Health Award at AMA National Conference, Sydney psychiatry registrar Dr Ashna Basu said she was “humbled and honoured to have even been considered.”

It’s a modest assessment of the value Dr Basu has contributed to supporting women in medicine. Currently the President-Elect for the Medical Women’s Society NSW (MWSNSW), Dr 

Basu has played a significant role in championing gender equality. 

Dr Basu is a third-generation women’s advocate. Her late grandmother was heavily involved in the Medical Women’s International Association (MWIA) in India and her mother has also been a strong proponent of gender equity.

The MWSNSW are dedicated to ensuring women in medicine have a community that supports members with common issues, such as parental leave and job-sharing, and provides women with opportunities to upskill and gain new experiences.

“It’s important to have a community that understands your experience, and to be around women who understand what it’s like to face sexism and discrimination, the unconscious bias that assumes you’re a nurse no matter what, who know what it’s like to juggle a career and motherhood, and who are passionate about making medicine a more inclusive place.”

As an active figure in medico-politics, Dr Basu advocates for women to not only be recognised for their achievements, but to be elevated to positions of leadership. 

“It’s really special for women to come together and to have that support. It’s also important that we advocate for equity in medicine and in medical leadership. While we may have equal, if not more women in medical school, we can see that drops away when you look at leadership positions, such as heads of departments. There are so many factors that play into this disparity, but it’s interesting to look at the literature that says that women are over-mentored but under-sponsored, and how that affects career progression.”

Dr Basu also has a passion for helping the wider community. She is a director for The 100% Project – a charity and not-for-profit organisation that looks at improving gender equity and helping Australian women in leadership across all industries, particularly in the corporate sphere. Some the key issues affecting women in leadership more broadly are improving access to childcare, flexible work arrangements, encouraging men to access parental leave and ensuring workplaces facilitate this, battling societal expectations of women, and addressing unconscious bias.

“A lot of the things that affect women in medicine are the same things that affect women in any industry, and one of the key things that weighs on my mind is childcare. I guess in having a child and taking time off to have a child, you’re necessarily taking a break in your career and you’re going to take longer than someone who didn’t need to take that time off. Moreover, NSW Health pays you according to the time you’ve worked in the system – so a man and woman may be doing the same job with the same amount of responsibility, but the woman is earning a full paygrade less, because she had a child,” she said. Providing women with access to childcare, parental leave, and part-time work, and a flexible work life balance is important for women in all professions, not just medicine.

“I’ve taken my general values towards equity and inclusion – not just for gender, but for race and sexuality, and a whole host of issues, into everything that I do. If I’m speaking on a panel, it’s important to me that it’s a diverse panel, or if I’m organising a panel then certainly those values shape that panel or the event that I construct,” Dr Basu said. 

A true inspiration and a strong representative of women in medicine, Dr Basu said she’s grateful for all the support that’s allowed her to do the roles, which in turn have created bigger opportunities.