Introduction
This post is an update on Balance the Dental Boards. Over the course of the summer, we slowed our activity. This was mostly to allow any changes in the gender balance of the boards to take place. This blog post is, therefore, a recap. This is based on an article that the British Orthodontic Society published a few weeks ago.
Firstly, I would like to start will start by outlining the advantages of having a board that is inclusive and encourages diversity. There has been some research into balanced boards. The findings suggest that having a balanced board has several advantages. In summary, inclusive and balanced boards are more likely to be effective, better able to understand their stakeholders, be open to new ideas, and have broad experience. This leads to improved decision-making.
Furthermore, boards are commonly made up of similar members with similar backgrounds, experiences, and networks. If the members are homogenous, they are more likely to produce “group think”. Boards must make use of the available skills within an organisation. By not utilising evident female talent, organisations are likely to have poor performance.
Finally, it is clear that any imbalance represents gender inequality and is not acceptable. As 50% of registered dentists are women, we would expect a balance of genders on various dental bodies.
Why am I interested in this?
Since I started working on this problem, several people have asked me about my reasons for my involvement. In my career, I have sat on many committees and boards. These have ranged from small dental school/professional working parties to national-level boards. In my early days, nearly all the committees were comprised of men. While this may reflect staffing in dental schools at that time. This was not true of some of the BOS committees. At that time, there was clear sexism throughout our profession. I will never forget a Chair of one major committee reminding members to bring their brightest jewels, our wives, to the conference dinner, when at least a quarter of the consultants were women! I also remember the corridor conversations where people discussed the future membership of committees. They stated that a woman was not suitable because she had to leave work to take care of her family. I have hoped that these days have gone by; however, I fear that they have not following some conversations that I have had with women over the last six months.
As my career developed, I attended several diversity courses that were held by the University. The main message from the courses was that it was not only difficult for women to obtain places on a board, but they were actively discouraged from applying. The advice at that point was to encourage women to apply for positions on boards. I put this into action, and indeed for the latter half of my career, I hoped that every board I Chaired had a balance.
Balance the Dental Boards.
When I retired, I became aware that many dental boards are not balanced, and I decided to try to do something about this unsatisfactory situation. So, I got together other like-minded people, and we formed “Balance the Dental Boards”. We are a campaigning group that raises awareness about this problem and suggests solutions.
We started work in September 2019. Our first step was to carry out a small audit of the gender balance of the UK dental boards. Disappointingly, we found that only 4 out of 23 UK dental boards had a balanced board. This was clearly wrong. Our first steps were to get involved with national seminars and start a social media campaign to draw attention to the problem. This was not “hassle free”, and I got a fair amount of personal abuse on Social media. But I guess that I am used to that!
Progress?
It has been good to see that there has been some significant progress on this issue over the last year. For example, our latest research (April 2021) has shown that 9 of the boards were balanced. There are now 10 with less than 38% women on the board. The BOS has made some significant changes with a woman President and a board composed of 44% women. I am not suggesting that we are responsible for this change, as several other organisations are working on this—for example, the Diversity in Dentistry Action Group, which has input from most dental societies. However, we are pleased to be part of this effort.
Final thoughts
I have worked at all levels of academia and the NHS. I am a white male, and I have never been subject to discrimination. Nevertheless, I have heard many overt sexist comments over the years. Indeed, I have probably made comments “in jest” that I am ashamed to say should have been “called out”. I am sure that matters have improved, but progress is slow. I am optimistic that we can keep our momentum up and achieve significant change over the next few years.
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