Impact of Gender Diversity in Leadership within Healthcare

Running Head: LITERATURE REVIEW 1
Literature Review
Author’s Name
Institutional Affiliation
Date

LITERATURE REVIEW 2
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.

LITERATURE REVIEW 3
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,