According to Ndidi, “the aim [of the Women in Medicine society at KCL] is that any aspiring young medic can look at these doctors and find one that looks like them. It’s about changing attitudes to women in the medical field. We’ve got a changing workforce demographic so that’s why we want to celebrate that.”

Reflecting the feeling, May says, “At Athena SWAN student society at St Georges, we’ve definitely seen a shift in the interest in what our members want to see from the society. There are the people at the very top who are the absolute trailblazers in their field, but we want to dispel this stereotype that the only women with these skills are the trailblazers. You need to be exposed to women at all points in their career, so that it’s not an unachievable goal that you can see as a student.”

May goes on to suggest it’s less about the need to be inspired. Now they want to know what they need to succeed: “Our members definitely want to be given the opportunity to obtain the skills they need to succeed. So as much as inspiration is a huge part of what we do, we need to start thinking how we encourage the character traits that encourage women and enable women to reach senior leadership roles at the highest levels of their field.”

Female role models come in all forms

“Female leadership is important because people at the top need to represent the population that they serve,” says May. But role models can be found at all stages of your medical career. Both May and Ndidi agreed the people that have inspired them the most so far were closer to home.

Women in medical leadership at all levels

Women in medicine May Ndidi ad 1

Women in medical leadership at all levels