Women of Winship

The Women of Winship committee, was founded to help address gender disparities in the academic environment, and to promote career development for women at Winship.

The committee has created a safe forum for women to talk about their experiences and access mentorship resources through advocacy, training, workshops and focus groups.

The committee's goals are to:

• Enhance recruitment, retention and professional advancement of women in Winship.
• Promote awareness of existing gender disparities in the fields of healthcare and science, and create solutions to overcome these disparities in our work environment.
• Help develop a pipeline for women to grow in their career path leading to positions of leadership in the organization and to be successful in these roles.
• Advocate for women to be represented at every level of the workforce, committees, working groups and panels

The Women of Winship committee strives to achieve greater gender equity in the academic environment. The committee's measure of success includes improvements in the percentage of women promoted to associate and full professor, retention of female faculty, appointment of women to leadership roles, representation of women in every decision-making committee/group and an overall shift in culture that fosters women's career development.

A recent survey by the American Cancer Institute found that women were highly under-represented in leadership roles. Findings included: Non-Hispanic White individuals comprised 79% of center directors, 82% of deputy directors, 72% of associate directors and 72% of program leaders. Women are underrepresented in all leadership roles ranging from 16% for center directors to 45% for associate directors (Lerman et al, JNCI 2022). These statistics call for taking decisive action and prioritizing the establishment of women leaders at all cancer centers.