RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Diversity among health care leaders in Canada: a cross-sectional study of perceived gender and race
JF Canadian Medical Association Journal
JO CMAJ
FD Canadian Medical Association
SP E371
OP E377
DO 10.1503/cmaj.211340
VO 194
IS 10
A1 Sergeant, Anjali
A1 Saha, Sudipta
A1 Lalwani, Anushka
A1 Sergeant, Anand
A1 McNair, Avery
A1 Larrazabal, Elias
A1 Yang, Kelsey
A1 Bogler, Orly
A1 Dhoot, Arti
A1 Werb, Dan
A1 Maghsoudi, Nazlee
A1 Richardson, Lisa
A1 Hawker, Gillian
A1 Siddiqi, Arjumand
A1 Verma, Amol
A1 Razak, Fahad
YR 2022
UL http://www.cmaj.ca/content/194/10/E371.abstract
AB Background: Diverse health care leadership teams may improve health care experiences and outcomes for patients. We sought to explore the race and gender of hospital and health ministry executives in Canada and compare their diversity with that of the populations they serve.Methods: This cross-sectional study included leaders of Canada’s largest hospitals and all provincial and territorial health ministries. We included individuals listed on institutional websites as part of the leadership team if a name and photo were available. Six reviewers coded and analyzed the perceived race and gender of leaders, in duplicate. We compared the proportion of racialized health care leaders with the race demographics of the general population from the 2016 Canadian Census.Results: We included 3056 leaders from 135 institutions, with reviewer concordance on gender for 3022 leaders and on race for 2946 leaders. Reviewers perceived 37 (47.4%) of 78 health ministry leaders as women, and fewer than 5 (< 7%) of 80 as racialized. In Alberta, Saskatchewan, Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia, provinces with a centralized hospital executive team, reviewers coded 36 (50.0%) of 72 leaders as women and 5 (7.1%) of 70 as racialized. In British Columbia, New Brunswick and Newfoundland and Labrador, provinces with hospital leadership by region, reviewers perceived 120 (56.1%) of 214 leaders as women and 24 (11.5%) of 209 as racialized. In Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec, where leadership teams exist at each hospital, reviewers perceived 1326 (49.9%) of 2658 leaders as women and 243 (9.2%) of 2633 as racialized. We calculated the representation gap between racialized executives and the racialized population as 14.5% for British Columbia, 27.5% for Manitoba, 20.7% for Ontario, 12.4% for Quebec, 7.6% for New Brunswick, 7.3% for Prince Edward Island and 11.6% for Newfoundland and Labrador.Interpretation: In a study of more than 3000 health care leaders in Canada, gender parity was present, but racialized executives were substantially under-represented. This work should prompt health care institutions to increase racial diversity in leadership.