The Contributing Factors of a Woman's Choice to Pursue Leadership in the Medical Corporate Industry

Abstract

Women have been making immense improvements for their representation in the healthcare industry; for instance, 76% of healthcare professions are now held by women (Day & Christnacht, 2019). 13% of healthcare CEOs are females, which is shockingly low compared to the work activists and female professionals themselves have put into increasing representation (Birk, 2019). This study seeks to understand the change in this pattern as well as the factors which influence women in their pursuit of leadership positions in the medical corporate industry. 7 semi-structured interviews were conducted in the span of 2 months. These participants were selected based on gender and their current position in the medical field. Many of the participants hold titles such as Nurse Practitioner, Radiologist, Occupational Therapist, and more. Each job either demonstrates a position of leadership or a specialized role in the industry. From these 7 interviews, 7 main themes emerged: familial support, marital support, positive mentors, monetary encouragement, personal drive for leadership, passion for healthcare, and personal setback. Solutions were drawn from these major themes for the sole purpose of answering the question: What factors influence women, in the later part of their career, to pursue or not pursue a position of leadership in the medical field? By fully understanding these factors one may establish programs of support for the future generation of female healthcare workers in order to raise the amount of female representation in the corporate environment.