#SeeingIsBelieving Newsletter (04.29.20)

Throughout the pandemic, women have been on the frontlines. Women make up 70% of the healthcare workforce, and they're on the frontlines in a variety of other ways, from leading the COVID-19 vaccine trials to gaining recognition for superior leadership in the management of the coronavirus crisis.

While jobs and roles aren't gendered, biases and gender stereotypes among other factors make it particularly difficult for women to reach the same level of visibility and/or success as their male counterparts. #SeeingIsBelieving helps reshape belief systems, and it corrects for unequal ratios that continue to exist today. This is why equal representation in all facets of life - including leadership and media, to name a few - really matters. Unequal representation of genders creates an imbalanced dynamic that results in gender stereotypes and inequalities across the board. 

Women on the healthcare frontlines share another common enemy in addition to COVID-19: sexism. The Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) required to keep healthcare workers safe is designed based on the male form, despite the fact that women make up the majority of the healthcare workforce. The underlying gendered assumption that doctors are male is deeply problematic on multiple levels, but the most immediate concern is that ill-fitting PPE and medical gear puts female healthcare workers' lives at risk. The population risking their lives to save others is vulnerable to harmful subconscious gender stereotypes that persist in every aspect of our lives. 

We can and we must do better than this. Gender stereotypes, discrimination, and sexism do not disappear on their own; they require action. Blind spots do not correct themselves; when we see them, we have to do something about them. Change must happen on every level; from individual (e.g. voicing personal beliefs), to collective (e.g. a collective call for PPE manufacturers to re-design PPE with the female form also in mind), to systemic (e.g. ensuring equal pay for work of equal value, such as that of home health aides and essential cleaning crews, through policy change). Then, we can say that we are ensuring that #SeeingIsBelieving.