Women’s Influence in Dentistry

By Kristine Berry, RDH, MSEC

It’s not just about more women in leadership roles; it’s also about a better balance of male and female characteristics in the industry.

This is a tremendous moment in history for women. Although there’s still work to be done to create global gender equality throughout the world, women in the dental industry have incredible opportunities for breaking out of traditional roles – largely due to the efforts by women in the industry who have come before them. As they do so, the entire industry – male and female – will benefit.

The question is, given the state of play within the leadership ranks, and the succession planning of dental organizations and dental practices, how will the influence of women be fostered and progress within the dental industry? This article will explore what leadership is from the behavioral psychology, trade and gender-related research of masculine and feminine traits, or – in terms more familiar to some – transactional leadership and transformational leadership.

What is leadership?
In my view, leadership at an individual level is a decision, a mindset. It is not a title or position. I believe we can lead, positively influence, serve, call others to action and create change from wherever we are. Some of you lead because you are CEOs, regional managers, directors, VPs, involved in business development, social media or marketing superstars, entrepreneurs or speakers. You are standing in public and/or have external facing leadership roles. Other women in dentistry work quietly in the background in supportive roles, yet they have tremenedous influence shaping the direction and values of their associations, offices, departments and/or companies.

Over the course of our professional careers, we see a multiplicity of leadership styles and approaches to leadership that are shaped as much by people’s personality as by their backgrounds, education, life journeys, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, emotional intelligence and empathy skills, performance anxiety or psychologicial threats, flight or flight responses, disabilities, vision, need for safety, need for belonging and personal standards of excellence, to name but a few. Behind our individual leadership is a complex blend of ingredients that makes us unique, including a core set of values that drive our purposeful work in leadership.

If we are to be leaders who serve and lead others, we must first understand and lead ourselves and practice checking in on whether we are living up to our own  leadership principles. On a basic level, we must have an understanding of our internal triggers and biases about our masculine and feminine energy traits. These traits, either embraced or denied, will influence how we perceive the world and our vision of what can and must be, our place and role in it, and the actions needed to make that vision our reality.

Subhead: Leadership reimagined

The challenge of leadership is to be able to re-imagine the traditions – that which has always been. There is a groundswell of conversation and vigor driving those who hold the formal power, influence and money to reflect and be cognizant of the people they serve and the employees they represent. For instance, we can learn from statistics that tell us more dentists will retire in the next three years than ever before, and most of them are white male solo practitioners; or, we can learn from the fact that more than 50 percent of graduates are female, or that among the 198,517 dentists practicing in 2017, 31 percent were female; of that 95 percent of the nation’s dental hygienists are female as are 94 percent of dental assistants and office managers.

For me, these trends don’t reveal the feminization of the industry. The drive for diversity is trending, but not at every level, including corporate boardrooms, as part of investment or senior executive teams, regional or special market groups, practice ownership, C-suite positions and/or high profiled podium speakers. Restating the words of journalists Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn, women in the world hold up half the sky. The single most significant opportunity in dentistry is to create opportunities for women across the industry.

The book, The Athena Doctrine: How women (and men who think like them) will rule the future, by John Gezerma and Michael D’Antonio, recounts the results of a global research initiative they conducted in 2011 investigating how the world defined traditional feminine/masculine qualities and leadership. In a global survey of 64,000 people across 13 countries that represent 65 percent of the world’s GDP (including Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Japan, Mexico, South Korea, UK and USA), the authors report that 66 percent of participants agreed “the world would be a better place if men thought more like women.” Gezerma and D’Antonio note that countries with higher levels of feminine thinking/ leadership behavior have a higher per capita GDP and a higher quality of life.

Additionally, a 2014 Peterson Institute for International Economics white paper found the bottom line of companies with women in corporate leadership (i.e., CEO, board and other C-suite positions) is associated with a one-percentage point increase per net margin, which, for a typical firm, translates into a 15 percent increase in profitability. And companies that have women in leadership roles are showing higher performance assists, revenues and stockholder value.

Subhead: Defining masculine and feminine traits

To determine masculine and feminine traits, Gezerma and D’Antonio did two separate studies. In the first study, participants were asked to classify human behavioral traits as masculine, feminine or neither (Figure 1). In the second study, another group of participants received the same list of words, without credit of gender, and were asked to rate their significance to certain virtues: leadership, success, morality and happiness. When they statistically compared the samples, they could see that across age, gender and culture, people around the world feel that feminine traits correlate more strongly with making the world a better place!

The following, according to the authors, are the top qualities for the ideal modern leader:

Subhead: Masculine and feminine leadership

According to other researchers’ empirical studies on behavioral psychology and gender-related research, masculine energy is about doing, while feminine energy is about being. When the masculine energy sees or encounters a problem, the sole goal is to find a solution. When the feminine energy sees or encounters a problem, there is a sincere desire to share and connect. The masculine energy wants to hunt, pursue and chase; it wants to be needed. The feminine energy wants to be sought after, pursued, cherished and honored, and to feel safe, seen and understood.

The masculine energy is analytical, impatient, assertive and logical; it moves with a dominant single-mindedness. It generally focuses on one task or issue at a time, concentrating its attention on a singular focus. The feminine energy is nurturing, understanding and all about intuition and feeling. It feels and sees everything, continuously multi-tasks and processes everything at once.

All people have both masculine and feminine energy traits. The way in which we call upon these assets contributes to our individual style of leadership. The research suggests a balancing of stereotypical feminine and masculine traits vastly increases the capacity of both men and women to solve problems, lead/grow their teams and increase their enterprise’s profits. This is not a male-versus-female issue. Men can be as caring as women, and women can be as analytical and assertive as men. Our gender is who we are conditioned to be, rather than what we can be. We must all see feminine values not as belonging to one gender, but as a new form of innovation for today’s world. According to Howard Morgan and Joelle Jay, authors of “The New Advantage: How Women in Leadership Can Create Win-Wins for Their Companies and Themselves,” women in leadership and implementing feminine assets is a global competitive advantage.

If we want to foster women’s leadership and advancements in the dental industry, we need to re-imagine a world in which a new leadership model exists. We need to rethink and reshape what women’s leadership looks like in dentistry. Seasoned women leaders must analyze their leadership values, practices and structures and consider what they are doing to sponsor the next generation of leaders. All leaders – both male and female – must ask themselves if they are excluding any populations or groups from embracing leadership.

We must expand our concept of leadership and what it should look like. As experienced leaders, we must acknowledge that to remain relevant and make a positive change in oral healthcare, we must face the truth that we do not have all the wisdom that is required in today’s world. We must draw on the wisdom of women leaders from across all walks of life.

Figure 1. Human Behavioral Traits

Source: Gezerma, J. & D’Antonio, M. (2013). The Athena Doctrine. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Kristine Berry RDH, MSEC

Kristine Berry is an international speaker and executive coach , specializing in enhancing group practices. Looking for a speaker or coach, she invites you to contact her via email at [email protected] or visit her website www.kristineberry.com

References:

Gezerma, J. & D’Antonio, M. (2013). The Athena Doctrine. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Gilbert, E. (2015). Big Magic. New York: Riverhead Books.

Jironet, K. (2011). Female Leadership. London: Routledge.

Morgan, H. J. & Jay, J. K. (2016). The New Advantage: How Women in Leadership Can Create Win-Wins for Their Companies and Themselves. Santa Barbara: PRAEGER.

O’Reilly, N. D. (2015). Leading Women: 20 Influencial Women Share Their Secrets to Ledership, Business and Life. Avon: Adamsmedia.

Orser, B. & Elliott, C. (2015). Feminine Capital: Unclocking the Power of Women Entrepreneurs. Standford: Standford University Press.