I have dual fellowship training in pediatric hospital medicine and pediatric palliative care. I am an attending on our pediatric palliative care service and associate program director of our fellowship program.

First and foremost, by asking questions and truly listening to the answers. As men, we will never truly understand the experience and challenges of women in our field. But when people are willing and vulnerable enough to tell us, we should listen and believe them. Second, any time we’re in a meeting, invited to be on a panel, asked to give a talk, etc. look around and ask who’s missing. Are there qualified female colleagues who should be there and aren’t? Use your position and privilege to make sure women have a seat at the table.

In terms of mentorship, I currently have mentees who are women in medicine at the pre-med, undergraduate, graduate, and faculty levels. In terms of sponsorship, when I’m invited to give a talk, I will often invite a female junior colleague to co-teach with me or give the talk in my place. I also try to come up with novel ways to discuss and highlight gender inequity in medicine. Recently, I have created videos for my Youtube channel to try to build perspective and empathy for these challenges.

Old Fashioned