The CSR Minute: Healthcare Organizations Address C-Suite Gender Gap

Healthcare Organizations Address C-Suite Gender Gap

While the Affordable Care Act hogs the healthcare news headlines, another issue is quietly getting some attention: the industry’s C-suite gender gap. Although women hold seventy-five percent of all healthcare jobs, they are just twenty-six percent of hospital CEO positions. At Fortune 500 companies in healthcare, the numbers are equally low: women make up just twenty-one percent of executive roles and twenty-one percent of board members.

Now, some healthcare organizations have launched programs to advance more female executives to senior leadership positions, according to a report in Modern Healthcare. Carolinas HealthCare Systems, TeamHealth, and Sutter Health are among those working to train women for higher professional roles. Their efforts include monthly meetings and workshops to teach leadership skills, sponsors to advocate for advancement, networking situations, and guaranteed interview opportunities. The programs report making significant progress in raising the numbers of women executives in healthcare. I’m John Howell for 3BL Media.