Wonca Working Party Reviews the Global Status of Women Family Doctors

As part of the meetings in Durban, South Africa in 2001, the WONCA Governing Council granted the Special Interest Group on Women and Family Medicine a new status as a WONCA Working Party for Women and Family Medicine (WWPWFM), thus giving the group an annual budget and greater opportunity to influence decisions of WONCA. A Steering Committee for the WWPWFM pre-conference to be held at the next WONCA international meeting in Orlando was established and consisted of Dr. Lucy Candib (USA), Dr. Barbara Lent (Canada) and Dr. Cheryl Levitt (Canada). Since that time, the Steering Committee has been working diligently on several exciting initiatives.

Steering Committee members, Cheryl Levitt, Barbara Lent, and Lucy Candib, meeting at Langdon Hall in Ontario, Canada, in February 2002 to develop the Working Party document on Women and Family Medicine

The biggest project is the writing of a monograph on Women and Family Medicine based on a review of the international literature, and a 7-section working document, which we will use to guide our strategic planning. The documents look at the unique issues facing women family physicians around the world -- in training, in practice, in academia and in organizations. The materials are supported by an extensive annotated bibliography. We have disseminated the materials widely to international colleagues through our WONCA Women and Family Medicine Working Party listserve, and will be discussing them in more detail at the upcoming meeting in Orlando.

Four women Chairs of Family Medicine Departments in four different world regions meeting at McMaster University in March 2003: Dr. Shameela Kamali, Aga Khan Medical School, Tanzania; Dr. Amanda Howe, University of East Anglia, England; Dr. Cheryl Levitt, McMaster University, Canada; and Professor Zorayda (Dada) Leopando, University of Philippines, Manila, Philippines.

In order to better understand the experiences of women in family medicine in all WONCA regions, we also developed a needs assessment questionnaire to look at the challenges facing women in family medicine in training, practice, academic and leadership settings. Data have been collected and collated from individuals and groups in 9 countries. We see this as a 'work in progress' and continue to circulate questionnaires at national and international conferences.

The upcoming meeting in Orlando in October 2004 will include several exciting sessions to which the steering committee and other members of the working party have contributed. We are planning a 2-day pre-conference as an opportunity to develop a strategic action plan, based on the working party's written materials. We are very excited to have Dr. Amanda Howe, chair of Primary Care at the University of Anglia in England as facilitator. During the main part of the meeting Dr. May Cohen, professor emerita from McMaster University in Hamilton, Canada, will be speaking on Women and Leadership. Later that day the symposium "Women in Family Medicine: Making a difference around the world!" will showcase the special activities of women in family medicine around the world.

The WWPWFM will develop a strategic plan at the pre-conference in Orlando and we encourage interested members to attend. We hope to prepare a WWPWFM Action Plan for the WONCA Governing Council on how WONCA can uniquely contribute to challenges experienced by women family physicians as they provide exemplary care to their patients, participate in the training of medical students and family medicine residents, and contribute to their communities, as individuals and leaders within medical and other organizations.

Those interested in more information on the WONCA Working Party on Women and Family Medicine can email lcandib@massmed.edu to join the WONCAWOMEN listserv.

Dr. Barbara Lent
60 Chesley Avenue
London Ontario Canada
N5Z 2C1
Fax 519 433 2244
blent@uwo.ca