ABSTRACT

TIME’S NOW for Women Healthcare Leaders: A Guide for the Journey

Women comprise over 80 percent of healthcare frontline employees, but they often hit the proverbial glass ceiling. Only 30 percent of healthcare C-suite Executives and less than 15% of CEOs are women. Moreover, while 51 percent of medical students are women, only 16 percent of the Department Chairs and Deans are women. Clearly, women are facing barriers to achieving their potential, limiting their ability to add their unique talents and skills to the tables of leadership. The author provides extensive detail on these barriers and approaches to their solutions. This is a practical "how-to" book that will help women in healthcare envision their ability to contribute and inspire them to lead. The author sees this as not only helping women, but also facilitating solving healthcare’s myriad problems, improving health and benefitting society.

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This book is a must-read primer for women seeking leadership. It is practical, thought provoking, and carefully researched, addressing why women’s leadership is important and how women can be better leaders. Gabow’s approach capitalizes on interviews with strong women leaders. She uses the notions she learned from the interviews coupled with research from the literature to create an easy-to-read, motivating, and challenging book for women and men!

Nancy Agee
President and CEO Carilion Clinic
Past Chair American Hospital Association

TIME’S NOW for Women Healthcare Leaders is filled with powerful examples of how women have overcome multiple obstacles and prevailed on their leadership journeys. It is a MUST read for women and men about the obstacles to be overcome, potholes to avoid, and the shout outs to be given to women who every minute, every hour, every day are committed to human caring. It has captured the heart and spirits of women from diverse backgrounds who have and continue to demonstrate their commitment to making society a better place for all!

Linda Burnes Bolton, DrPH, RN, FAAN
Senior Vice President and System Chief Equity Officer Cedars Sinai Health System

This highly engaging book addresses the relative dearth of women leaders in healthcare through thoughtful assessment of how leaders’ values and actions can improve healthcare within healthcare organizations and systems. Dr. Gabow, an exceptional leader whose relentless passion for excellence for patients served by Denver Health earned her national renown, combines insightful observations from her own path with current statistics about women in medicine, experiences of other successful women leaders, and mentoring skills to offer wise counsel to all current and future leaders. The thoughtful distillation of practical wisdom offered here make this book a unique contribution and highly relevant to healthcare in America today.

Carolyn Clancy, M.D.
Past Director, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality

This insightful book is full of personal stories, honest reflections, and data-driven guidance from and about women leaders. It serves as a wonderful resource for those motivated to advance diverse and inclusive organizations.

Karen DeSalvo, M.D., MPH
Chief Health Officer, Google Health
Past Acting Assistant Secretary for Health, US HHS
National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, US HHS

chapter 1|18 pages

Why Should Women Lead?

chapter 2|22 pages

Lay of the Land

chapter 3|22 pages

Obstacles and Opportunities

chapter 4|12 pages

First Things First

chapter 5|22 pages

You Can’t Parachute into Leadership

chapter 6|20 pages

Now You Are a Leader

chapter 7|12 pages

Even Leaders Have a Boss

chapter 9|8 pages

Sharing and Receiving Lessons Learned

chapter 10|12 pages

Remember the Obvious

chapter 11|18 pages

Reflections of Women Leaders