Celebrating women as leaders

Women make up more than 40% of Canada’s physicians. Many have stood at the helm – with thousands more on the front lines – during the pandemic which has highlighted the integral role they play and contributions they make to medicine. With International Women’s Day and the first Canadian Women Physicians’ Day just around the corner (March 8 and March 11 respectively), I want to tell you about a few of the many women in medicine who I have been privileged to meet.

Dr Danièle Behn Smith is an Indigenous physician, one of BC’s deputy provincial health officers, and host of a 13-part television series on traditional healing practices. I attended a conference where she shared a deeply personal and harrowing account of her journey through medical school. She spoke of the experience of disillusionment as she found the traditional western aspects of medicine to conflict with the wisdom and experience of Indigenous people. She courageously charted her own path in response. I will never forget how she described the well-publicized 2017 death of a man in a Manitoba emergency room as being caused by racism. The ‘r’ word can make people uncomfortable, including myself, but Dr Behn Smith taught me that we must never hesitate to use the right words to describe an ugly situation if we want things to be better. I’m so pleased to see her have such an important role in the fight against COVID-19.

Dr Liana Hwang is a family physician from Alberta who, alongside a team of colleagues, founded a national Facebook group for physicians during this pandemic. Dr Hwang and I graduated from the same medical school class – a class that became closer after the tragedy of a classmate’s death. She has been one of the brightest stars to come out of our school. During COVID, she and her team have provided more than 21,000 physicians a safe, respectful, and collegial forum to discuss the COVID-19 pandemic. It cannot be overstated how difficult the task has been: Many of our colleagues have been through hell and back, and it shows in the poignant posts and dialogue on the forum. Through it all Dr Hwang and her team have made the forum a critical and trusted source of information and analysis, and an essential part of many colleagues’ pandemic journey. She has helped convert frustration, hopelessness, and despair into insight, hope, and understanding. Her leadership is the kind we need in these challenging times.

Dr Sophia Park is a medical biochemist, the Program Director for the Medical Biochemistry postgraduate training program at the UBC medical school, and a member of the Board of Directors of Doctors of BC. I first met Dr Park after ‘Bell Let’s Talk Day’ two years ago when she bravely shared her own experience of depression and treatment on Let’s Talk Day. Like it or not, there is still a stigma around mental illness and substance use, even in the medical community. It can be hard to talk about these problems, and even harder to get help. These barriers have taken an untold toll on many lives. People like Dr Park are extraordinary physicians, leaders, teachers, and neighbours. She demonstrates that physicians are human, that we are vulnerable to the same things as everyone else and that we can recover and grow stronger like everyone else. Illness doesn’t define us. Only we can define us. I am proud to have a colleague like Dr Park.

There are many more women I could highlight. Throughout the pandemic women have demonstrated their skills and knowledge when it comes to effectively leading COVID-19 response and recovery efforts. In fact, many countries that have been successful in responding to COVID-19 are spearheaded by women: New Zealand, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Iceland, Ethiopia and Slovakia.

Women have shown us why gender equity is so important. Imagine if we fully appreciated, celebrated, and harnessed their gifts to the world. Imagine what scientific, economic, social, and cultural progress could be made? 

So on International Women’s Day, Canadian Women Physicians’ Day, and indeed every day, I want to thank and honour all the tremendous medical women who lead, heal, teach, advocate, and innovate. All people, of all genders, benefit from their collective work.

- Dr Matthew Chow