Significant numbers of women are employed throughout the dental industry from dentists to front-of-house staff and everything in between. In fact, in the UK there are more female dentists than there are male and over 90% of dental care professionals are women*. These statistics should be celebrated as dentistry is an industry equally open to both genders but, inequality is an issue as there is a higher proportion of men in the highest-paid quartile**.
On 8th March 2023 we celebrate International Women’s Day. This focal point in the women’s rights movement exists to champion the social, economic, cultural and political successes of women around the world, whilst also contributing to highlighting issues that affect women where equality is lacking.
At Patient Plan Direct we fully support the women who are part of the PPD family, at every level of the company. Whatever stage they are at in their career, as a business we support their career development so they can reach their professional goals. Let us introduce the team of women who play a huge part in ensuring our business thrives:
- Jeanette the operations director who part-owns the business
- Marie has been with the business for 6 years and is now head of client services
- Shula our client services team leader has also been with us for 5 years
- Carolyn and Danielle manage the day-to-day calls in the client services team
- Chelsea our relationship manager nurtures our client’s plan base
- Kristin the marketing manager makes sure that PPD appears in all the right places
- Janice our Head of Business Development is the longest-serving member of the team and came from a practice background
- Emma, one of our Business Development Managers, is making a splash down south!
As a business, we are keen to support the IWD campaign, especially within the dental industry. This year’s theme, the Embrace Equity campaign, really aims to broaden the knowledge of how inequality isn’t always what a business should focus on, but rather the issue of equity. The difference between the two is defined as follows:
Equality (people given the same resources or opportunities) and;
Equity (people with different circumstances allocated the exact resources and opportunities needed to reach an equal outcome).
Thanks to the IWD website, the below graphic*** summarises this message at a glance:
When it comes to the workplace, the mission of IWD is to forge inclusive work cultures and sometimes ‘equality’ between peers may not be enough to achieve this. ‘Equity’ however, can make all the difference to those who require more support to successfully reach their desired professional goals.
We are spreading this year’s #IWD2023 message to raise the importance of equity. Applying equity to advance the career of women within the wider dental community could make a huge difference to many. A lack of equity could be one of the reasons male dental professionals dominate higher-paid roles within UK dentistry (but this is an issue that needs to be explored further to identify other contributing factors that collectively create the imbalance).
With our blog, we hope to reach many dental professionals to aid the discussion of equity at work. It may help women more clearly identify what support and/or guidance they need to aim for roles in higher-paid positions. Educating dental employer’s on the issue of equity may also provide a different perspective on how better to support women looking to progress into higher-paid roles if they are not at the same starting point as their male colleagues.
So together we can forge women’s equality and collectively, we can all #EmbraceEquity.
*https://www.spadental.co.uk/blog/2022/03/each-for-equal-women-in-dentistry/
**https://www.uhd.nhs.uk/uploads/about/docs/our_publications/gender_pay_gap_report_052022_final.pdf