Examining representation of women in leadership of professional medical associations in India.

Autor:	Singh P; The George Institute for Global Health, New Delhi, India., Sriram V; School of Population and Public Health, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada.; School of Public Policy and Global Affairs, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada., Vaid S; Incluve Labs, New Delhi, India., Nanda S; Independent Consultant, India., Keshri VR; The George Institute for Global Health, New Delhi, India.; School of Population Health, Faculty of Medicine and Health, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia.; State Health Resource Centre, Raipur, India.
Jazyk:	angličtina
Zdroj:	PLOS global public health [PLOS Glob Public Health] 2024 Aug 12; Vol. 4 (8), pp. e0003587. Date of Electronic Publication: 2024 Aug 12 (Print Publication: 2024).
DOI:	10.1371/journal.pgph.0003587
Abstrakt:	Women constitute 70% of the global health workforce but are significantly underrepresented in leadership positions. In India, professional medical associations (PMAs) play a crucial role in shaping policy agenda in the health sector, but very little is known about gender diversity in their leadership. Therefore, we analysed the gender representation of current and past leaderships of Indian PMAs. Data of the current and past national leadership and leadership committees of 46 leading PMAs representing general, specialities, and super-specialities were extracted from their official websites. Gender composition of leadership was analysed using a sequential approach. For Indian Medical Association (IMA), the largest Indian PMA, an analysis of its 32 sub-chapters was also undertaken. The findings revealed that only 9 (19.5%) out of 46 associations are currently led by a woman. Leadership committees of half the associations have less than 20% women, while there were no women in the central committee of nine PMAs. Among past presidents, information was publicly available for 31 associations and all of them have had less than 20% of women presidents till date. Among the 64 individuals currently serving as presidents and secretaries of 32 sub-chapters of IMA, only three (4.6%) are women. Even in associations closely related to women's health, such as obstetrics and gynecology, pediatrics, and neonatology, unequal representation persists, highlighting male dominance. These results demonstrate significant gender disparities in PMA leadership in India, necessitating urgent efforts to promote gender equality. Gender-transformative leadership is crucial to develop gender-sensitive health care policies and practices which can serve as a catalyst for broader societal change. Competing Interests: Three of the authors declare no competing interests. VS is on the Editorial Board of PLOS Global Public Health. VRK is a life member of the Indian Association of Preventive and Social Medicine (IAPSM) and Indian Public Health Association (IPHA) and has voting rights to elect leadership committees in these. (Copyright: © 2024 Singh et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)
Databáze:	MEDLINE
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