Tag Archives: women in IT

Celebrating Women’s History Month: Championing Diversity in Health IT

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What better time than Women’s History Month to highlight the many initiatives lifting up women in our health IT industry.

It has been 10 years since I started speaking out more publicly as a health IT professional about women’s issues though I am a long-time feminist having come of age during the women’s movement of the 1970s. In 2014, I was asked to do a keynote talk on a topic of my choice at a 200-person health IT conference. It was one of those vendor sponsored, invitation only events. I was the speaker during the first night’s dinner. I titled my talk: “Our Future Workforce – Unlocking the Potential”. I talked about the fact that not enough women were going into STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) fields and the need to encourage and support women at all levels. Prior to the talk I wrote this post – Technology, where are all the women? – and afterwards I wrote this one describing the positive response to my talk – Women and technology, part 2 – from an audience that was probably 80% men!

When I launched this blog several months before that talk in 2014, I made sure to create a category called “On Women and Work” knowing I’d be periodically writing about women’s issues, and not just in March each year.

Fast forward to 2024. I am certainly not a lone voice in our industry. Many women focused initiatives have emerged. Here are just a few to highlight: Continue reading →

HIMSS as a networking event

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For those of you attending HIMSS23 in Chicago next week, it will be a mix of education, vendors, and networking. Let’s face it, while education and the exhibit hall are what our organizations are willing to invest in, networking is what we all look forward to each year. Seeing colleagues we’ve known for years, finally meeting in person people we’ve only known on zoom, and making new connections. Especially after a few years of virtual only conferences.

I won’t be attending this year. But that doesn’t stop me from giving some advice on the networking front.

Whether you are in transition and looking to make connections for your next opportunity or you are focused on learning from your peers and sharing success (and failure) stories from your own work, effective networking is critical to your work and your career.

Here’s some general networking advice:

Network extensions – Everyone you know knows a few more people who could potentially be helpful. Proactively and respectfully work your network.

Professionalism – Always present yourself as the consummate professional whether at work, online, or in business interactions after hours.

Two-way street – Figure out what you need from a connection and what you can offer to them.

Diligent follow-up – If you commit to provide a reference, make an introduction, or something else, be sure to do it in a timely manner.

Networking is one of the greatest values of the annual HIMSS conference and HIMSS provides many ways to find people with similar interests as yours. Here’s some slightly modified advice specific to HIMSS from previous years posts: Continue reading →

What advice would you give your younger self?

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I love this question. It was one of the questions for a panel I was supposed to be on this week. The NEHIMSS chapter has an annual Women in IT conference, and I was one of four invited panelists for the three-hour event. But 40 miles into my 100-mile drive to the venue, cruising fast on the freeway, my left front tire totally blew out – down to the rim. Scary yes, but I got myself over to the shoulder and called AAA. My second call was to the panel moderator explaining I wouldn’t be able to make it. An hour and a half later I was again on the road with the spare tire that is designed for maximum 50 MPH taking the back roads home to avoid freeway speeds.

I was looking forward to the event and the panel. I love sharing stories with next generation leaders so this was going to be a fun night. I was ready after the usual panel prep call to cover the range of questions we had agreed on.

While I didn’t get to do the panel, I don’t want this question to go to waste – here’s what I was ready to say when asked what advice I would give my younger self:

  • Know your big rocks – I’ve written on this in the past, “Do you know your big rocks?”. It comes from Stephen Covey and it is a spot-on analogy. Our families and closest friends are our big rocks. Don’t let all the little stuff take up your space first leaving no room for your big rocks.
  • Don’t take crap from anyone – In my 30s, two of my peer managers seemed out to get me. One even threatened me. I was the only woman on the management team for a 5-year period. After a lot of stress and wasted energy processing it all at night talking to my incredibly supportive husband, I decided enough was enough. I let our boss know what was going on and told him that I would let him know of any further incidents. He was going to have to deal with it because I couldn’t. In another situation where a male manager from another department got overly friendly with sexual advances, I reported it to compliance. Hard as reporting something may be, it is necessary to stop the behavior if you can’t stop it yourself.
  • Have a strong support system – Whether it is family or friends, everyone needs a support system they can turn to. I could tell plenty of stories about my incredibly supportive husband and how he has been there for me back when I was a young working mother in management and going to school at night for my MBA as well as the decades since (our 47th wedding anniversary is in a few weeks).
  • Accept that you can make choices – One of my staff wanted to consider coming back from maternity leave after she had her first child in a part-time role but worried about how it would stall her career. She was a project leader on a management track. We talked about her options and I encouraged her to keep in mind that she had choices. After a period of part-time work, she eventually came back full-time, picked up again in a leadership role and then had two more children a few years later. She made choices right for her and balanced growing a family with growing her career.
  • Own your own career and be open to the possibilities – Before I left my CIO position at Brigham and Women’s Hospital for a similar role at Michigan Medicine, we were going through major staffing changes in IT. My staff were concerned about their future in supporting legacy systems vs the new EHR coming in. I told them they had to own their own career and be open to the possibilities. When I make that second point now, I emphasize that there are jobs today that no one heard of 5 or 10 years ago and there will be new ones in the future we can’t even imagine now.

There you go – I had plenty more to say on the panel given the other great questions we were going to discuss but wanted to at least share this one.

And after this car experience, my parting advice is keep your AAA membership current and keep your cell phone charged.

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Confidence gap, wage gap, and more

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We have much progress to celebrate as women but sad to say that in 2023, there is still so much more to do. I’ve seen many excellent pieces recently that illustrate the gender gaps that exist in the workplace.

Have you ever heard of “Tall Poppy Syndrome”? I hadn’t. I saw this post on LinkedIn from Women of Influence+ on a study they conducted of over 4,700 women around the world. From the post, their research shows that almost 90% of women worldwide are belittled and undermined because of their success at work. As they say, “The Tallest Poppy, our groundbreaking study, reveals an eye-opening story about how Tall Poppy Syndrome (TPS) negatively impacts ambitious, high-performing women, and what this means for organizations”. Here is the press release summarizing the results and a link to access their white paper.

It’s no wonder that many women get “imposter syndrome”, even women in executive level positions. As Becker’s reported in this short article, “75% of female executives get imposter syndrome”, imposter syndrome is doubting one’s abilities and feeling like a fraud. The article notes that women expect lower pay than men, are subject to condescension and have less faith they will be treated equally. This all leads to lowered confidence.

As Becker’s reported in this short article, “The gender ‘confidence gap’ is wide in the workplace”, the confidence gap and wage gap continue. And we are now seeing the promotions gap more clearly. Continue reading →

#EmbraceEquity

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Today is International Women’s Day (IWD) and March is Women’s History Month. The International Women’s Day 2023 campaign theme is #EmbraceEquity. As their website says, “The aim of the IWD 2023 #EmbraceEquity campaign theme is to get the world talking about Why equal opportunities aren’t enough. People start from different places, so true inclusion and belonging require equitable action. International Women’s Day is a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women. The day also marks a call to action for accelerating women’s equality.”

Yes, we have much progress to celebrate but sad to say that in 2023, there is still so much more to do. Especially with our current political climate and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) programs being under attack in some states. Take Florida for example where the governor announced in February that he intends to ban state universities from spending money on diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, calling them discriminatory.

I continue to participate in CHIME’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion committee as we start another year of programming for all CHIME members. As leaders, raising awareness and finding ways to take positive and meaningful action for our employees and our patients is what this work is about. This Friday as part of the DE&I Dialogues series, we will host a live webinar entitled, “Why DE&I: Defining Health Disparity, Inequity, and Inequality”. The webinar will cover why DE&I is important in your healthcare organization and how it impacts patient care. Featured speakers are Andrea Daugherty, CIO at Dell Medical School at the University of Texas at Austin, Cletis Earle, SVP and CIO at Penn State Health, and Dr. Eric Quinones, Chief Healthcare Advisor at World Wide Technology. You can register here for the March 10, 12PM ET webinar. I hope you will join us this Friday and for future DE&I Dialogues as we continue to learn and work together in 2023.

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STEM needs a youth pipeline

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It has been quite a while since I wrote a blog focused on STEM – the last one was “STEM or not, own your career”. A field trip with my 8-year-old granddaughter, Kylie, and 6-year-old grandson, Colin, to the Boston Museum of Science during their winter break got me thinking it’s time to talk about STEM again. To make this more than just another nana story, I did a little research on current STEM statistics both from a workforce and education perspective.

Here are a few facts I found on a site describing National STEM/STEAM Day:

  • The number of STEM vacancies remains higher than the actual candidates.
  • The average pay for STEM jobs is 70% higher than the national pay average.
  • In the U.S. 8 out of 10 employers were looking for employees with STEM education for important job roles.
  • The U.S. Bureau of Statistics predicts that 80% of the jobs in the upcoming years will require technical skills.
  • STEM jobs were predicted to increase in the U.S. by 16% between 2014 to 2024.

I also found an insightful blog, “The state of STEM education told through 26 stats” from iD Tech – a company that provides tech camps for youth. Here are some highlights on STEM education from that blog:

  • Only 20% of US high school graduates are prepared for college-level coursework in STEM majors.
  • Fewer than half of the schools in the US offer computer science classes.

With a focus on encouraging and preparing girls for STEM careers, it had some interesting statistics:

  • 74% of middle school girls express an interest in engineering, science, and math but only 0.4% choose computer science as a major when they get to college.
  • As of 2019, women comprise just 27% of the STEM workforce.
  • 63% of middle school girls who know women in STEM feel powerful doing STEM.
  • Moms who communicate on STEM leads to girls being +20 points more interested in pursuing their studies.

You can check out the blog for data sources and more insights.

When we talk about pipelines for future job opportunities, it is important that we start all the way back to elementary school ages and expose kids to various fields of study. Continue reading →

Best employers for women – is your organization on the list?

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It’s Getting Harder to be a Woman in America by Claire Suddath, senior writer at Bloomberg Businessweek, is a powerful, must-read piece for anyone concerned about what is happening to women in this country.

I have long been a champion for women and a proud feminist. Doing what I can while in leadership roles to support women, not being afraid to speak out on women’s issues, and voting for candidates who are truly pro-women’s rights. I encourage you to do the same.

It was good to see the recent Becker’s story “30 hospitals, health systems and biomedical companies on Forbes’ top 100 list of best employers for women” that listed all 30 and their rank within the top 100. According to the Forbes article, “America’s Best Employers for Women”, the survey respondents were asked to rate their organizations on criteria such as working conditions, diversity and how likely they’d be to recommend their employer to others. These responses were reviewed for potential gender gaps. Female respondents were then asked to rate their employers on factors such as parental leave, discrimination and pay equity, and to nominate organizations in industries outside their own. Representation at the executive and board levels were also factored into the final score.

If your organization didn’t make the list, ask yourself what you can do. Are you in an HR leadership position and able to directly influence employee policies and benefits? Are you an IT leader who consistently creates a supportive culture and values diversity? Regardless of your position, do you help create a supportive work environment?

We’re all in this together – at home, at work, and in our communities.

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#BreakTheBias

#BreakTheBias

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That’s the theme of International Women’s Day (IWD) 2022 celebrated today, March 8. It is one to remember not just today but every day. Two weeks ago, as Black History Month came to an end, I wrote a post titled “2022 of the 1950s?” about systemic racism. March is Women’s History Month and when I see the assault on women’s rights in many states, I could ask that same question again.

While women have made great progress since I was growing up in the 1950s and 1960s, coming of age during the women’s movement shaped me both personally and professionally. I remember when International Women’s Day was something most people knew nothing about. Now it is more prominently highlighted in the media. You may have seen some “strike the pose” posts on social media in recent days and wondered what that was about. But International Women’s Day is not just a celebration of women, it is a focus on the historical and current struggles of women for true equality and a call to all of us to forge a gender equal world.

Themes in recent years have been:

#ChooseToChallenge – reminding us that we are responsible for our own thoughts and actions and that we can all choose to call out gender bias and inequality.

#EachforEqual – emphasizing the need to bring together people of all gender, age, ethnicity, race, religion, and country to embrace the values and actions needed to create a gender equal world.

What does this year’s theme #BreakTheBias focus on? From the IWD website:

“Imagine a gender equal world.

A world free of bias, stereotypes, and discrimination.

A world that is diverse, equitable, and inclusive.

A world where difference is valued and celebrated.

Together we can forge women’s equality.

Collectively we can all #BreakTheBias.”

What can you do? Continue reading →

STEM or not, own your career

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Did you know that November 8th was national STEM day? I admit that I didn’t realize it until I was tagged in a comment on a LinkedIn post about national STEM day. Geeta Nayyar, SVP Executive Medical Director at Salesforce, shared some important but disappointing statistics on women and STEM in that post. While women make up about 47% of the total workforce, she notes that we are statistically underrepresented in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics – STEM fields. Women make up only 29% of the STEM labor force, 19% of STEM company board members are women, and among STEM industry CEOs, only 3% are women. No wonder I so often am the only woman in the Zoom room when talking with technology firms. We can and must do better.

In her post, Geeta encouraged people to tag inspiring women leaders they know. I’m grateful and humbled that Linda Stotsky, Content Marketing Strategist at Boston Software Systems, tagged me and several other women in her comment.

I have long been a proponent of more women going into STEM fields and have willingly shared my own stories. I started out as a programmer in the early 1980s and then moved into health IT management for the rest of my career – a field that has been male dominated. I recall a long stretch in the late 1980s when I was the only woman on an all-male IT leadership team and the challenges I faced. Challenges I overcame and that I have helped other women overcome since then.

I was honored to be one of the first women interviewed for the new podcast series, The Game-Changing Women of Healthcare, produced by The Krinsky Company. In this interview I share stories and lessons from my career, give career advice, and provide tips for developing next generation leaders.

As I always say, you have to own your own career and be open to the possibilities. Technology continues to evolve at a rapid pace and the possibilities are unlimited. If a STEM career is right for you, go for it. Be sure to find role models and mentors who can support you and help you overcome the challenges you may face.

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Role models who inspire

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Who inspires you? Is it an historical figure, a well-known contemporary figure, or someone you know personally? If you are like me, it is probably a number of people. I pose this question to you during Women’s History Month and must ask myself that same question.

Being on zoom calls from my home office every day, people are quick to notice and comment on the Ruth Bader Ginsburg portrait on the wall. She was truly an inspiring role model and her legacy lives on. The portrait is by a local artist, Taryn Nunez. I bought it at the 2020 Women’s Fund of Rhode Island (WFRI) annual fundraiser and silent auction (all virtual of course). WFRI invests in women and girls through research, advocacy, grant making, and strategic partnerships designed to achieve gender equity through systemic change. I support WFRI both financially and with volunteer time. I love that my RBG art is a conversation starter for both men and women who I “zoom” with. And I often hear stories of their daughters who consider RBG their hero.

I also have a picture on my desk that only I see. It is my mother a few years before she died from cancer. I am now the same age that she was when she died – a rather sobering fact. We grew up in very different times. She did not live long enough to see my life as a wife and mother beyond the first few years nor how my career has evolved. She was widowed in her early 40s and raised the four of us on her own. She inspired me at a young age to be strong, independent, and giving. Volunteer work was something we all did. We did not have much, but we could always help others who had less.

I must admit that growing up I didn’t have female heroes, but I read a lot of biographies of famous women. Continue reading →