There is strong evidence that diversity in executive leadership and governance contributes to higher organizational performance. From a database of over 1,000 companies, McKinsey and Company demonstrated that “companies in the top quartile for gender diversity on their executive teams were 21 percent more likely to have above-average profitability than companies in the fourth quartile.”1 Numerous other studies reach a similar conclusion: training leaders in techniques to reduce unconscious bias and create a diverse leadership team improves organizational performance.
Gender parity in health care organizations, however, continues to lag. For the past 25 years, women have made up at least 40 percent of U.S. medical students. In 2018, more women than men enrolled in U.S. medical schools. Yet overall, women account for only 18 percent of hospital CEOs and 16 percent of all deans and department chairs. Women are underrepresented when it comes to senior authorship (10 percent) and...