On the 18th of February, Michelle Glekin, International Relations Officer at the Israeli Medical Association, attended a Conference on Gender Equality, organized by the Irish Medical Organization in Dublin.
The meeting began with a welcome speech from Dr Clive Kilgallen, President of the IMO. This was followed by a keynote speech by Dr Catherine Day, Former Secretary General of the European Commission and Chair of the Citizen’s Assembly on Gender Equality. Dr. Day gave a presentation on ‘What is gender equality and why is it so important?’
The Irish Medical Organization presented the results of their extensive survey amongst Irish physicians on Gender Equality in Medicine. The results of this survey were quite surprising to the audience, highlighting the need for such conferences.
The next session included a panel discussion on overcoming barriers to equality in medicine, which opened the floor to discussing the key themes that had emerged from the IMO survey on Gender Equality in Medicine.
The meeting continued with a presentation on ’Reflections on gender, work-life balance and leadership in medicine’ by Dr. Suzanne Crowe, President of the Irish Medical Council. This led into a session on advancing gender equality in medical education and training.
After a well-earned lunch break, the participants took part in interactive sessions which focused on either Active Bystander Training or Gender Diversity and Addressing Unconscious Bias. IMA representative, Michelle Glekin attended the latter session, which introduced the topics of diversity and intersectionality and competencies required to address unconscious bias.
The conference was successful in raising awareness of problems in gender equality in the medical profession.