Impact of Gender Diversity in Leadership within Healthcare

This literature review examines the impact of gender diversity in leadership positions within healthcare organizations. It explores the benefits of incorporating women in leadership roles, such as increased collaboration and profitability. The review also discusses the importance of gender diversity in addressing social issues and reducing disparities in healthcare.

Running Head: LITERATURE REVIEW 1
Literature Review
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Impact of Gender Diversity in leadership within healthcare
Gender diversity involves an equal representation of women in the workplace based on
the definition by Joecks, Pull & Vetter (2013). Gender diversity is believed to have positive
effects in the organization and that is why many companies, leaders or society advocates for it.
Despite that women are making up 50 percent population across the globe; they are less
represented in the leadership position (Joecks, Pull & Vetter, 2013). The assignment focuses on
reviewing different studies to determine the impact that incorporating women in the leadership
position has to an organization and more importantly the impact in a healthcare setting. Some of
the benefits of gender diversity include pooling of talents, increased collaboration, and
profitability and more. In the literature review, all the benefit and impact of their position will be
examined through the lens of various studies conducted previously.
Existing data shows that gender diversity is becoming an essential issue at either team or
organizational levels. In their research Vanderbroeck, & Wasserfallen (2017) assert that team
leaders and organizational leaders are tasked to manage gender diversity. When teams are
formed within health care, the team leaders are supposed to ensure that both male and women are
included. Even though leaders find it challenging to manage diversity, they are mandated to
ensure both men and women are represented to achieve more productivity. The authors added
that gender diversity in health care can be achieved if those in management recognize the
contribution both men and women can bring into health care. In essence, Vanderbroeck, &
Wasserfallen (2017) believe that health care organizations should utilize every available
opportunity to leverage gender diversity in order to improve team diversity.

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Other studies show that when health care organizations consider gender diversity they
can deliver services more effectively. Hunt, Prince, Dixon-Fyle, & Yee (2018) in the research
dubbed delivering through diversity, argued that there is a relationship between gender diversity
and performance. In the argument mooted in this research, it is believed that organizations that
embrace gender diversity in the executive or other levels of leadership at an organization have a
high likelihood of registering higher performance. The health care system is one intricate
industry that requires the input of men and women. Women are equally capable of providing
health care services efficiently. Health care especially the private medical facilities are focused
on making profits. This is likely to be possible if they diversify their leadership and management
by giving women chances to serve in different positions.
Existing data assert that gender equity in healthcare is way one of addressing inequity in
society. Based on SDGS, the world has a vision of attaining tremendous social progress and
improvement. Central to attaining the goal of ensuring that people are healthy, their wellbeing
improved is giving the marginalized people an opportunity to deliver services (Dhatt, Theobald,
Buzuzi, Ros, Vong, Muraya, et al., 2017). The world is arising against gender discrimination,
addressing unfair allocation of resources and advancing women’s contributions in leadership. In
essence, Dhatt et al., (2017) are addressing is that gender equity in health care helps tackle social
issues like gender-based discrimination. Health care is one sector that has an upper-hand in
pushing for social justice or gender inequity. It can work as an example for other organizations
by tackling gender inequalities within the sector.
Similarly, gender diversity in health care can help solve the problem of
underrepresentation in the US academic medicine. According to Toledo, Adams, Ross,

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Thompson, & Wong, 2017) gender diversity is one major approach towards eliminating health
care disparities. The health care for a long time has been dominated by men, a phenomenon that
made it difficult to tackle health care disparities. However, by involving women in leadership
and general affairs in healthcare, it becomes easier to achieve gender equity. Women have been
fighting for social justice that could see them make a contribution to fields that for long have
been perceived to be for men. Today, the gap is being closed, since medical facilities are taking
the challenge to bring more women onboard to improve performance in health care and eliminate
disparities in terms of gender.
Gender diversity in health care has helped reduce social exclusion in professions like
medicine. Existing research shows that medicine has been one profession where women were
perceived to be not capable enough to manage. In effect, this led to social exclusion in the sense
that women could not be allowed in some fields like health (Pattani, R., Marquez, Dinyarian,
Sharma, Bain, Moore, & Straus, 2018). At the dawn of the 21st century, organizations started to
make necessary changes so that a woman can also get space to make decisions on the board.
A study conducted by Virick and Greer, (2012) focuses on gender diversity in leadership
succession as a way to prepare for the future. First, they recognize gender diversity and
leadership preparation as a strategy for the organization to compete in the future. The method
used was a survey and archival data where the information was collected from executives and
managers on the question revolving gender diversity and succession plans. Therefore, the results
of the study showed a positive relationship in engaging women in the workplace. Further,
selecting women to succeed men in leadership positions showed improved performance in those
organizations. The incumbent managers were likely to nominate women into their position in

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unfavorable conditions depending on their performance. The fewer performers would rarely
recommend women in the managerial roles but for the high ranking, they were likely to do that.
A research conducted by Derks et al, (2016), reviewed on a queen bee phenomenon.
Queen Bee is a label of women who work hard to pursue their careers and dreams in male-
dominated organizations. They distance themselves from these who can pull them down and
legitimize inequality in the organization. In the struggle to pursue their career, they face
discrimination and social identity threat and distancing of women from a big position in the
workplace. It is through the struggle that women go through to make dominated places that give
them opportunities to get to powerful positions. Further, the research focuses on the culture f
gender bias that makes women give personal sacrifices as they go up the ladder.
The article “Managing gender diversity in healthcare: getting it right” by Vanderbroek
& Wasserfallen purposed on diversity and its growth both in teams and different level of
organization. As much of organization in the current times advocate for gender diversity, the
authors also concentrated to look at the challenges faced by team leaders to manage it. Through
various reviews on articles relating to the topic, where the finding suggested that the culture in
the workplace should support gender bilingual and avoid fixing women in the positions but to let
them compete fairly with men.
Hauser was forced by the situation in the US that women depth in a leadership position in
the health care sector was perplexing and challenging. Women are more in healthcare but the
ability to work was less tapped in the US. Through a qualitative online survey of 282, healthcare
leaders showed that leaders came from different functional backgrounds. Women who had
leadership roles 53.3% of women had a clinical background and mostly worked as nurses. 14.3%

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of male CEO came from general administration while 37.5% were physicians. So it clear that
career choices in healthcare plays an important role for women to get up the ladder.
Lantz, (2008) suggested that strong leadership with increased diversity is an issue in the
workforce. The author conducted a review of articles regarding women in executive posts for the
research. The organization need for gender diversity had led to increased number for women
leaders but it still remains underrepresented in the executive positions. Further, it was noted in
the research that salary disparity is also an issue that female workers face.
Roth et al, (2016), conducted a study on women physicians as health leaders with the
purpose to investigate the under-representation women physicians in leadership. The researchers
used a large number of participants to explore different perceptions. As many of the articles
above suggest that the failure of women to get to senior positions is contributed lack of
opportunities. But Roth et al, (2016) show that they often exclude themselves from the positions
since the costs overweigh the benefits. Further, undervaluing of women leadership by other peers
and lack of support for them make it hard for women to realize their leadership aspirations in
healthcare.
Javadi et al, (2016); Roth et al, (2016), agree that women constitute the majority in the
healthcare but they are underrepresented in leadership and managerial positions. For that reason,
the untapped potential does not contribute to ways of strengthening health systems. So it was
identified that drive for equity can impact inclusion and ability to fight barriers by female
workers. It is through effective leadership that equity can be achieved. The article suggested that
gender diversity can help streamline the health system since most of the women work in health
care and are more conversant with patient problems.

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Pattani et al. (2018) conducted research in university in the department of medicine in
Toronto. In the qualitative study, interviews were conducted for five months with full-time
faculty members. The information collected revealed gender gaps, their potential the impact in
the organization and the solutions that bridge the gap. The results of the study suggested that
healthcare was suffering from negative consequences as a result of low gender diversity. Some
of the impacts included unprofessional behaviors in the event that the gender gap was observed.
In an organization that is male-dominated and do not work to solve the problem of leadership
people protest against it which lead to unprofessional behaviors. Further, there is reinforced
stereotype that women are weak and cannot take managerial roles effectively like their male
counterpart.
In conclusion, the literature review on the impact of gender diversity in leadership within
health care has revealed that it has given women a voice in the health industry. Women can also
direct and influence policymaking in the sector because that is what gender parity advocates. In
the United States, a significant number of hospitals have given women opportunities to be their
leaders. Such hospitals have been able to grow and boost service delivery. When women are at
the helm of healthcare leadership they are health sector can perform better. The rise of women in
healthcare leadership has been achieved to some level since society is coming to terms that both
men and women are equal and can provide good leadership.

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References
Derks, B., Van Laar, C., & Ellemers, N. (2016). The queen bee phenomenon: Why women
leaders distance themselves from junior women. The Leadership Quarterly, 27(3), 456-469.
Dhatt, R., Theobald, S., Buzuzi, S., Ros, B., Vong, S., Muraya, K., ... & Lichtenstein, D. (2017).
The role of women's leadership and gender equity in leadership and health system strengthening.
Global Health, Epidemiology and Genomics, 2.
Hauser Martha C. Leveraging women’s leadership talent in health care.
Hunt, V., Prince, S., Dixon-Fyle, S., & Yee, L. (2018). Delivering through diversity. Mckinsey
& Company. Retrieved July, 26, 2018.
Joecks, J., Pull, K., & Vetter, K. (2013). Gender diversity in the boardroom and firm
performance: What exactly constitutes a “critical mass?”. Journal of business ethics, 118(1), 61-
72.
Javadi, D., Vega, J., Etienne, C., Wandira, S., Doyle, Y., & Nishtar, S. (2016). Women who lead:
successes and challenges of five health leaders. Health Systems & Reform, 2(3), 229-240.
Lantz, P. M. (2008). Gender and leadership in healthcare administration: 21st century progress
and challenges. Journal of Healthcare Management, 53(5).
Pattani, R., Marquez, C., Dinyarian, C., Sharma, M., Bain, J., Moore, J. E., & Straus, S. E.
(2018). The perceived organizational impact of the gender gap across a Canadian department of
medicine and proposed strategies to combat it: a qualitative study. BMC medicine, 16(1), 48.

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Roth, V. R., Theriault, A., Clement, C., & Worthington, J. (2016). Women physicians as
healthcare leaders: a qualitative study. Journal of health organization and management, 30(4),
648-665.
Ruben, M. A., Shipherd, J. C., Topor, D., AhnAllen, C. G., Sloan, C. A., Walton, H. M., ... &
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academic health care system: A case study. Journal of homosexuality, 64(10), 1411-1431.
Toledo, P., Duce, L., Adams, J., Ross, V. H., Thompson, K. M., & Wong, C. A. (2017).
Diversity in the American Society of Anesthesiologists leadership. Anesthesia & Analgesia,
124(5), 1611-1616.
Vanderbroeck, P., & Wasserfallen, J. B. (2017). Managing gender diversity in healthcare: getting
it right. Leadership in Health Services, 30(1), 92-100.
Virick, M., & Greer, C. R. (2012). Gender diversity in leadership succession: Preparing for the
future. Human Resource Management, 51(4), 575-600.