Promoting Women in Leadership by Taking the Focus Off of Women

Authors: Amanda Fazzalari M.D., Kavitha Ranganathan M.D. 

Underrepresentation of women in positions of leadership exists in academic plastic surgery as it does in business. Women represent fewer than 10% of plastic surgery program directors and only 5% of plastic surgery chair/chiefs.​1,2​ Similarly, 10% of Fortune 500 CEOs this year are women. ​3​ A bleak statistic, yet considered to be progress. Women of color experience the greatest drop off in the pipeline and are least represented at every level of corporate leadership.​4​  

In recent years, there has been an increasing focus on leadership development programs targeting women. While such programs are meant to empower and advance women through increased education, sponsorship, networking and promotion – they inherently discount the natural leadership strengths of women.  

Women consistently score higher than men on several key measures of successful leadership. Specifically, women are more likely to demonstrate transformational leadership versus transactional leadership. They are more likely to engage in participative decision making, build a sense of community and invest in the development of others. They are more likely to clearly define expectations, responsibilities, and reward achievements. They are also more likely to act as role models and be a source of inspiration, sharing a clear vision and their compelling optimism with their teams.​3–5​ These behaviors and practices are associated with improved organizational performance.​4​  

However, women in leadership are also less likely to be confident in their own likelihood of success.​4​ Focusing increased efforts on improving leadership skills of women may further undermine their confidence, through the inference that they are less equipped to lead, that they need significant improvements to compete with men, or that they possess deficiencies that make them less likely to merit leadership roles. Instead of elevating women, these programs could have the opposite effect and perpetuate feelings of inadequacy, self-consciousness, and self-doubt.  

We must find ways to promote more diverse leadership in academic plastic and reconstructive surgery. So what’s the solution? Let’s shift away from focusing on bettering the leadership skills of women and instead redirect efforts to improving the opportunities to promote the women into the leadership roles they are well suited for. Instead of women focused leadership programs, let’s develop gender-inclusive leadership programs that focus on translating the strengths of inspiring women leaders to men. As there are far fewer women in plastic surgery leadership positions to serve as mentors, the buy-in by senior male plastic surgeons remains imperative, particularly for female plastic surgery residents or junior faculty. Mentoring allows for bidirectional transferring of knowledge and practices of effective leadership, both parties stand to gain significantly provided their goals are aligned. We must strive to reduce gender inequality and create more diverse and inclusive leadership in academic plastic and reconstructive surgery in order to improve clinical care, education, research, innovation, and advocacy for our patients. 

​​References 

​​1. Keane AM, Larson EL, Santosa KB, et al. Women in Leadership and Their Influence on the Gender Diversity of Academic Plastic Surgery Programs. Plast Reconstr Surg. Published online 2021:516-526. doi:10.1097/PRS.0000000000007681 

​2. Chen W, Baron M, Bourne DA, Kim JS, Washington KM, De La Cruz C. A report on the representation of women in academic plastic surgery leadership. Plast Reconstr Surg. Published online 2020:844-852. doi:10.1097/PRS.0000000000006562 

​3. Kevin Kruse. New Research: Women More Effective Than Men In All Leadership Measures. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/kevinkruse/2023/03/31/new-research-women-more-effective-than-men-in-all-leadership-measures/?sh=71b39d13577a. Published online 2023. 

​4. Women Matter: Time to accelerate. Ten years of insight into gender diversity. McKinsey & Company. 2017. 

​5. Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic. If Women Are Better Leaders, Then Why Are They Not In Charge? Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomaspremuzic/2021/03/07/if-women-are-better-leaders-then-why-are-they-not-in-charge/?sh=5f2ca176c88b. Published online 2021.