Maya Iyer receives 2024 AMA grant to promote gender equity through allyship
Maya Iyer, MD, MEd, FAAP, assistant dean for clinical track faculty, associate director of Women in Medicine and Science, clinical associate professor of Pediatrics at The Ohio State University College of Medicine and a pediatric emergency medicine attending physician at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, believes that embedding gender equity into an organization’s DNA comes down to one important factor – building allyship.
Dr. Iyer says that in the workplace, allyship occurs when those in positions of privilege support, advocate for, work in partnership with and conduct intentional actions and practices to promote the advancement of those in marginalized groups.
Her work that asserted that allies are needed to promote gender equity contributed to her being awarded the American Medical Association’s Joan F. Giambalvo Fund for the Advancement of Women scholarship to support advancing the study of women in the medical profession. The scholarship’s goal is to strengthen the ability to identify and address issues affecting women physicians and medical students.
Dr. Iyer worked with co-investigator Jaclyn Caccese, PhD, assistant professor in The Ohio State University School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences on a project titled “Allyship in Action: A Novel Social Media Initiative on Sharing Stories of Allyship to Promote Gender Equity,” which aims to provide specific examples of what constitutes allyship and how allyship can be used as a strategy for equity.
“The purpose of this project is to provide examples of how men-identifying leaders have promoted gender equity through sharing video stories on a social media platform,” Dr. Iyer says. “We aim to show that these powerful short stories will have more impact than written materials on cultivating allyship in medicine.”
Dr. Iyer says that while leaders do try to support others through mentorship and sponsorship, literature shows that women receive much less career sponsorship than men.
“In academic medicine, career cultivation – beyond sponsorship – is really needed to advance and attain leadership opportunities,” Dr. Iyer says. “Career cultivation is especially lacking for women leaders in academic medicine, such as medical school deans.”
Dr. Iyer; Carol R. Bradford, MD, MS, FACS, dean of the Ohio State College of Medicine; and several prominent women leaders recently published Gender Differences in the Path to Medical School Deanship in JAMA Network Open. Their research found that compared with men, women deans needed to work harder to overcome a lack of organizational support and other biases they faced during their leadership ascent.
Dr. Iyer says there are several ways institutions and leaders can provide midcareer women equivalent levels of organizational support, sponsorship and cultivation of their leadership potential. These efforts include offering education on gender equality issues and valuable sponsorship and mentorship to women on your teams.
“This includes proactively acknowledging and then amplifying the ideas and contributions made by your women-identifying colleagues,” Dr. Iyer says. “And completing an analysis of your organization’s gender representation, particularly in leadership roles, and addressing any equity barriers to improve a diverse workforce at all levels.”
Dr. Iyer credits a piece on LinkedIn Women, Leadership and Work by Megan Dalla-Camina, founder and CEO of Women Rising, as an innovative source of common effective allyship practices. The article examines how allyship and sponsoring women to represent the team and organization at external events boosts their visibility and recognition in the field. She says advocating on behalf of others includes speaking out against discrimination, unconscious bias and mistreatment.
“This shows the importance of being an ally in action,” Dr. Iyer says. “And in turn, this is one way to foster a more equitable workplace for everyone.”
