As a female PhD physicist, I was often the only woman in the room as an undergraduate and graduate student and as a research scientist. I faced sexism, unwanted attention and personal criticism — particularly early in my career. So I can relate to the gender equity issues that prompted Dara Kass, MD, an emergency medicine physician at New York University, to found FemInEM.
FemInEM is a blog that explores a variety of issues centered on the development and advancement of women in emergency medicine. Kass said their overarching goal is to make it easier for women in medicine to stay at work, despite conflicting priorities like family commitments, career objectives and personal health issues.
“I started FemInEM because I wanted to build a community amongst the women in emergency medicine,” Kass told me. “I had seen so many women solve their own problems around the expected life changes — like maternity leave, lactation and promotion — but they weren’t talking to each other. FemInEM seemed like a way to solve that problem. I didn’t want others to have to figure it out on their own, like I did.”
In addition to the blog, Kass said they use the power of social media — Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat — to amplify the conversation. “There are about 12 to 15 thousand women practicing in emergency medicine in our country, and we probably reach about half of them on a regular basis. The coolest part is that we reach all levels of learners from all over the world,” Kass said.
Kass explained that the online medium is important because it is “extraordinarily accessible and inclusive.” She emphasized that when discussing something like gender equity and the careers of women in medicine, it can never be only about the women. The conversation has to include men and allow them to reflect on their careers as well.
“We do this in a very inclusive way, so it’s really never about ‘us verses them,’” said Kass. “We’re talking about things like parental leave or salary equity. We base our discussions on data, but more importantly we focus on needing to all work together towards real solutions. Men are cool with it.”
Given the goal of inclusion, the blog uses an open-access submission process. “We take submissions from men, from people not in emergency medicine and from people around the world who have very different issues,” Kass said. “Anyone that wants to write for us just needs to submit an interesting piece that somehow speaks to the issue around gender equity in medicine.”
Kass particularly enjoys writing and reading posts on the struggles of having “multiple personalities.” One of her favorite posts is titled, “They call me #badassdoctormom.” “The #badassdoctormom post was written by a woman physician who talked about her daughter,” she told me. “This woman saved a guy at a train accident by cutting off his leg in the field, which is extraordinary. Her friend called her a bad ass. That night, during a bedtime story, her daughter asked whether she should call her doctor or Mommy. In her mind, she thought ‘How about bad ass doctor mom?’ In reality, her 5-year-old daughter now calls her a real-life superhero — that’s a really cool story.”
However, Kass told me that this blog post and others have gotten backlash from the female spouses of male physicians. This may be because the wives feel like they are being judged if they don’t work outside the home. Kass hopes this will change. Her advice to all women: “Just be who you are. Be happy. Our goal is to make people feel centered about the life they have in front of them and the choices they’ve made.”
Today Kass is spreading her message on how to support women in medicine when she gives grand rounds to Stanford’s emergency medicine residents. She is also expanding beyond online conversations to an in-real life event called the FemInEm Idea Exchange. Kass said this conference, being held in October in NYC, will make in-person conference networking more accessible to help develop women’s careers quickly and provide motivation.
This is a reposting of my Scope blog story, courtesy of Stanford School of Medicine.
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