Pictured: Dr. Naleen Andrade and Dr. Reni Soon share an embrace during the forum.
Enlightening discussion encompasses both dismay about current sexism and an analysis of the type of leadership skills that could help end it.
By Tina Shelton, JABSOM Communications Director
The unprecedented hearing in the U.S. Senate last week regarding controversial U.S. Supreme Court nomination Richard Kavanaugh dominated dominated the 4th Annual Women In Medicine “Talk Story” session at the University of Hawaiʻi (UH) medical school.
The speakers a included John A. Burns School of Medicine (JABSOM) Associate Professor of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Women’s Health Reni Soon, MD, MPH (JABSOM MD 2001, MPH 2012), and Naleen Andrade, MD, PhD, the first Native Hawaiian woman to become a psychiatrist and lead a department of Psychiatry within a U.S. medical school. Andrade (JABSOM MD 1982), also is past-president of the American College of Psychiatrists and the former Chair of the Board of The Queen’s Health Systems (QHS).
Discussion touched on anger among women
Judge Kavanaugh has been accused of sexual aggression and assault, and John A. Burns School of Medicine (JABSOM) professor Dr. Reni Soon said watching the hearings left her incredibly exhausted. Soon said she realized her fatigue was caused by the absorbing the pain recalled by one of Kavanaugh’s alleged victims and observing the way U.S. senators questioned the accuser.
“(Kavanaugh’s) testimony was bile-inducing,” said Dr. Soon, speaking last Friday to those at the Women in Medicine event. She noted that he may or may not be innocent. But his behavior before the committee disturbed her. “He embodies this rich white male privilege,” she said, “complete entitlement.”
“I was listening to that all day, it was riveting,” Dr. Soon said. She listened both on the car radio during her commute to work in Waiʻanae and in between seeing patients. She was astounded, she said, that a woman as accomplished as Dr. Christine Blasey Ford (a Kavanaugh accuser) was a victim of sexual assault, which Soon believes is a sign of how pervasive assault is.
Dr. Soon said she felt angry. “I am raising two young men, and I am especially troubled when people say, dismissively, ‘boys will be boys.’ There has to be a higher bar than ‘boys will be boys.’ Being a survivor of sexual harassment and assault,” she asked, “Is that really our common denominator (as women)? We need that to change!”
Dr. Soon said the field of medicine is not immune to the culture of sexual harassment. She said she has seen sexual harassment and is ashamed to say she did not always call it out. “We need to be leaders,” Soon said. “We need to take those jobs (leadership positions), we deserve those jobs. We have to get those positions of power.”
“It is still a man’s world, that system really benefits men,” Soon said. “The culture of medicine is that if you show signs of weakness, ‘you’re not cut out for medicine’, if you can’t handle it, ‘you’re not cut out for this this’.” She said that contributes not only to sexism but also causes some physicians not to seek out mental health care or other support they may need to cope.
Soon said women need to “change the game,” and to stand up as role models for others. “I’m making a pledge to all of you now, I am going to (call out sexual harassment) every time I see it,” she said.
A master class on leadership offers path, hope for change
“We saw a stark and some would say horrifying example (of the wrong type of leadership) as we watched our U.S. Senate over the past 48 hours. I pray that they can find the path to redemption and restore our hope in its republic and its institutions,” said Dr. Andrade.
Although Dr. Anddrade led the JABSOM Department of Psychiatry (1995-2012), presided over Graduate Medical Education at JABSOM (2012-2016) and chaired the QHS board, she said assuming and wielding power was not something that she was always comfortable doing.
Dr. Andrade quoted a national leader, one of her mentors, from whom she learned a powerful concept. “An effective leader must learn to build and use power to achieve his or her organization’s purpose and aims.” She repeated the sentence for effect. Then continued, “It would take me two decades to fully comprehend and effectively apply this leadership principle. I think the reason it took me so long to fully grasp the necessity to build and wield power was an underlying assumption that women should not and cannot wield power.”
“Underlying assumptions, according to Edger Schein, are the deepest part of a culture particularly an organizational structure and the most difficult to change because they are usually unconscious,” said Dr. Andrade.
“A common euphemism for power in women is the word ‘influence’ often accompanied by words such as ‘formidable’ and ‘castrating,'” said Andrade. “These three words reveal the tacit bias in our culture’s view of women and power. Executive leadership training asserts that power is the tool while influence is how you use it. How you use that tool.”
“If applied to the words influence, formidable and castrating, the underlying assumptions in our culture are, first, that power is a tool wielded by men. Therefore, men dole out power to women and determine the ways in which women use power. And second, women who wield and use power without men’s direction and control are frightening disturbing and dangerous to our men and their manhood,” said Dr. Andrade.
Speaking to her own strengths, Dr. Andrade said, “A good mind that is well worked can do brilliant things. And I have a good mind, not a great one, but one which I try to work to capacity. What I lacked (intellectually) I acquired by developing meaningful relationships that provided a network across various diverse areas, gender, culture, ethnicity, …became a core method of learning and leading for me.”
“Power without love is reckless, abusive and self-serving,” said Dr. Andrade.
Dr. Andrade described four types of power: expert power, which she said involves subject matter skills; reward power, recognizes and rewards in relevant, tangible ways the performance of those you lead; reverent power, an ability to convey a sense of presence and gravitas; and generative power, ability for leaders to build within themselves and those they serve and lead the strength to bring about social, political economic change. Generative power is permeated, she said, by love.
“Power without love is reckless, abusive and self-serving,” she said.
“The advancement of women in medicine and our larger society must incorporate these four kinds of power to create new cultural narratives and underlying assumptions where women build and direct power that ends the current sociocultural inequities and hierarchy that ignore the voice and presence of women,” said Andrade.
The presentations were followed by a networking session involving pre-med and medical students with JABSOM faculty. Dr. Winona Lee, an emcee for the forum, said the session inspired the group to begin taking action to expand mentoring initiatives and advocacy efforts via JABSOM student organizations.
Photographs by Vina Cristobal and Deborah Manog Dimaya from the 2018 Women in Medicine “Talk Story” event:
The Women in Medicine Talk Story was sponsored by the Faculty & Professional Development Program at JABSOM.