Cultivating A Career in Medicine: Application of the WorkParty Principles for Women Physicians

When considering the career of a physician, work is an association that easily comes to mind; party, on the other hand, does not. However, the principles that Create & Cultivate founder Jaclyn Johnson espouses to female entrepreneurs in her book WorkParty are the same principles that will propel the advancement of women in medicine. As with many industries, the majority of leadership positions in medicine are held by men.1 But change is coming. For the last fifteen years women have made up approximately half of medical school classes, and as of 2018, the majority of medical students are now women.2 The time is now to get these women on a career track to leadership and cultivating a WorkParty culture in medicine is just the way to do that.

Start by starting.

Collaboration over competition.

Find your tribe.

Pay it forward.

Start by starting, collaborate instead of compete, find your tribe, and pay it forward. These actions may just turn a career as a female physician into a WorkParty after all.

References

  1. Statistics — Group on Women in Medicine and Science (GWIMS) — Member Center — AAMC. (2016). Retrieved from https://www.aamc.org/members/gwims/statistics/
  2. Chandler, M. A. (2018, January 22). Women are now a majority of entering medical students nationwide. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/social-issues/women-are-now-a-majority-of-entering-medical-students-nationwide/2018/01/22/b2eb00e8-f22e-11e7-b3bf-ab90a706e175_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.237dcb474920
  3. Johnson, J. (2018). WORKPARTY: How to create & cultivate the career of your dreams. New York: Gallery Books.
  4. Mohr, T. S. (2018, March 02). Why Women Don’t Apply for Jobs Unless They’re 100% Qualified. Retrieved from https://hbr.org/2014/08/why-women-dont-apply-for-jobs-unless-theyre-100-qualified
  5. Ibarra, H. (2010). Women are over-mentored (but under-sponsored). Retrieved from https://hbr.org/2010/08/women-are-over-mentored-but-un

--

--

Hospital medicine physician with a passion for gender equity, narrative medicine, and medical education. jennifermcaputo.com

Get the Medium app

A button that says 'Download on the App Store', and if clicked it will lead you to the iOS App store
A button that says 'Get it on, Google Play', and if clicked it will lead you to the Google Play store
Jennifer Caputo-Seidler, MD

Hospital medicine physician with a passion for gender equity, narrative medicine, and medical education. jennifermcaputo.com