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Women chairs in academic medicine: engendering strategic intuition

Carol Isaac (Department of Educational Leadership, Mercer University Atlanta, Atlanta, GA, USA)
Lindsay Griffin (Department of Radiology, Bellevue Hospital Center, New York University, New York, NY, USA)

Journal of Health Organization and Management

ISSN: 1477-7266

Article publication date: 15 June 2015

346

Abstract

Purpose

Because stereotypically masculine behaviors are required for effective leadership, examining female chairs’ leadership in academic medicine can provide insight into the complex ways in which gender impacts on their leadership practices. The paper aims to discuss this issue.

Design/methodology/approach

The author interviewed three female clinical chairs and compared the findings to interviews with 28 of their faculty. Grounded theory analysis of the subsequent text gathered comprehensive, systematic, and in-depth information about this case of interest at a US top-tier academic medical center.

Findings

Four of five themes from the faculty were consistent with the chair’s narrative with modifications: Prior Environment (Motivated by Excellence), Tough, Direct, Transparent (Developing Trust), Communal Actions (Creating Diversity of Opinion), and Building Power through Consensus (an “Artful Exercise”) with an additional theme, the Significance (and Insignificance) of a Female Chair. While faculty members were acutely aware of the chair’s gender, the chairs paradoxically vacillated between gender being a “non-issue” and noting that male chairs “don’t do laundry.” All three female chairs in this study independently and explicitly stated that gender was not a barrier, yet intuitively used successful strategies derived from the research literature.

Originality/value

This study suggests that while their gender was highlighted by faculty, these women dismissed gender as a “non-issue.” The duality of gender for these three female leaders was both minimized and subtly affirmed.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

Financial support information: National Institute on Aging, grant no: T32 AG00265 (Isaac), and the Shapiro Research Fellowship (Griffin). The authors would also like to acknowledge Molly Carnes, MD, MS, Director of the Center for Women’s Health Research at the University of Wisconsin-Madison for her input on the paper’s contents.

Citation

Isaac, C. and Griffin, L. (2015), "Women chairs in academic medicine: engendering strategic intuition", Journal of Health Organization and Management, Vol. 29 No. 4, pp. 498-514. https://doi.org/10.1108/JHOM-08-2013-0174

Publisher

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Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2015, Emerald Group Publishing Limited

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