Action Alert | Missing Voices of Women of Color
After a two-year hiatus, the Digital Healthcare Innovation Summit is back in Boston on June 8. This summit consults investors, payers, providers, policymakers, and innovators on various topics regarding revolutionizing the healthcare industry. Some key discussion points include reducing health inequity within Medicaid, addressing care for underserved areas, utilizing technology to modernize clinical trials, and more.
Of the 45 speakers featured at this event, 24 speakers are men, and 21 are women. While these numbers may look good, upon further inspection, one sees that only five women of color are speaking at this event, none of whom are Black or Indigenous women. When looking at the conference co-chairs, one would expect more diversity — as two of the chairs are women of color. So, where are the women of color at this conference?
According to Insight Into Diversity, most leadership positions across the healthcare and medical sectors are held by white men. Women account for 25% of healthcare leadership roles despite being 70% of the workforce. These statistics are worse for women of color, who hold 20% of entry-level healthcare positions but only 5% of leadership positions.
While the women of color on the panels might reflect their role in leadership positions within the healthcare industry, we must recognize how access to those roles is heavily gendered and racialized. In addition, women of color can offer a unique perspective on healthcare due to the discrimination they face within hospitals and in access to care, making it essential to forward and prioritize their voices. For example, look at the racial disparities that exist in healthcare. According to Khiara M. Bridges, The National Academy of Medicine found that “racial and ethnic minorities receive lower-quality health care than white people—even when insurance status, income, age, and severity of conditions are comparable.” These are issues that require the perspective of non-white men to address, looking directly to people in these communities for help.
How can conferences like the Digital Healthcare Innovation Summit and healthcare companies ensure that women of color are adequately represented?
At GenderAvenger, we focus on elevating women’s voices in public dialogue across every sector. As we take an intersectional approach to our advocacy, we must name when women of color are excluded from conversations. Healthcare innovation is one of these conversations.
The lack of intersectional representation at the Digital Healthcare Innovation Summit eliminates crucial conversations at the intersections of race and health. Women of color, specifically Black and Indigenous women, poor women, women with disabilities, and immigrant women, have been excluded from meaningful conversations. When we bring these women to the table, they provide the industry with a perspective that those outside these communities may have studied but will not have.
As long as the healthcare industry has existed, it has centered and standardized whiteness as the norm. Unfortunately, this contributes to the historic implicit bias within the healthcare industry. According to Healthline, “a 2016 study report revealed that Black Americans are less likely to be treated for pain, and when they do get treatment, they’re given a lower dose of pain medicine.” Issues like this are essential to discuss, and proper representation is the first step to having meaningful conversations that lead to systemic change.
Light the Flame with Inspiring Reads
Take a look at this week's reading for a better understanding of the racialized and gendered nature of the healthcare industry. These reads help to clarify why proper representation and having dialogue about racial disparities in healthcare is essential.
Read more about how racism and its implications on public health negatively impact the mental and physical health of millions of people in the United States and throughout the world.
Take a look at how Black Americans are systemically under-treated for pain, receiving worse care on 40% of the U.S. DHHS quality care measures.
Learn about how the Tuskegee Syphilis Study, nonconsensual testing of Black bodies, contributes to medical distrust in Black communities to this day.
This post was written by GenderAvenger Harvard IOP Summer Intern Eden Getahun. Learn more about Eden and her passion for gender equality and healthcare here.
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📣🚨 How can there be healthcare innovation at the Digital Healthcare Innovation Summit with no Black women and only 5 women of color? #wherearethewomen #DHIS #GenderAvenger