The report from the AMA Gender Equity Summit, which was held in Sydney earlier this year, is now available and participants are encouraged to embrace it.
The AMA is asking all organisations that attended the Summit to adopt and report on three immediate actions they will take as a result of the Summit to encourage and support equity within their sphere of influence.
The nine key action areas identified at the Summit are:
- Establish targets for gender diversity in representation and leadership.
- Report and publish gender equity data.
- Actively encourage women to apply for leadership roles.
- Provide equitable access to leave entitlements for all genders.
- Improve access and uptake of parental leave and flexible work and training arrangements for all genders.
- Provide interstate portability of leave entitlements.
- Implement transparent selection criteria and processes that disarm gender bias in entry into training and employment.
- Provide access to breastfeeding facilities and childcare at exams, conferences and work.
- Identify gender equity champions (and celebrate women in medicine).
The AMA is committed to working collaboratively with other organisations who are dedicated to reducing bias and achieving diversity, equity and inclusion, for women and other underrepresented groups in the medical profession.
The Report will form the basis of practical actions and ongoing discussions that individuals, employers, training and professional bodies can pursue to make a real difference to achieving gender diversity, equity and inclusion in medicine.
The AMA is asking all organisations who attended the Summit to adopt and report on three actions from the Summit with the goal of encouraging and supporting gender diversity within their sphere of influence.
In 2019 the AMA has committed to:
- Adopting a target of 40 per cent women, 40 per cent men, 20 per cent flexible for all AMA Councils, Committees and Boards, with a gender diversity target of women holding 50 per cent of Federal AMA representative positions overall, for attainment by 2021;
- Collating and reporting on gender data annually regarding composition of leadership positions within State and Federal AMA bodies, Councils and Committees, speaker invitations at National Conference and Federal AMA recognition awards, and disseminating the findings to AMA Federal, State and Territory Councils and Boards annually;
- Developing an AMA Diversity and Inclusion Plan, Including practical steps to improve diversity in membership and in the medical profession more broadly; and
- Providing funding for breastfeeding mothers in Federal AMA representative roles to bring a carer for their child to official representative activities.
The full Gender Equity Summit Report 2019 can be downloaded from https://ama.com.au/ama-gender-equity-summit-report
