By Suzanne Greenwood, Executive Director
International Women’s Day is a global celebration of the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women.
While broad recognition of the day has gained momentum over recent years, the day has been celebrated internationally since 1910 and in Australia since 1928. Australia’s first International Women’s Day was held in 1928 in Sydney. Organised by the Militant Women’s Movement, women called for equal pay for equal work, an eight-hour working day for ‘shop girls’ and paid leave.
We have come a long way since then but International Women’s Day still serves as a reminder of the great things women have done – and continue to do – but also some of the gaps where more recognition of women is needed.
Women are now able to work in all sectors of industry and one sector which benefits immensely from this is community pharmacy.
Women are dominant in the pharmacy workforce with national data released late last year by the Australian Health Practitioners Registration Agency showing that as of September 2021, 63 per cent of the total number of registered pharmacists were women.
The ratio is a bit less in community pharmacy, but nevertheless significant. Department of Health data shows that in 2020, 56.74 per cent of community pharmacists (9,873 of a total 17,400) were women. Of these women, 45.28 per cent were younger than 35 and 74.15 per cent were younger than 45 years of age.
The strength of women in the pharmacy sector extends across to pharmacy assistants. ABS Census 2016 data (the latest available) suggests that 89.66 per cent of total pharmacy sales assistants, as they are categorised by the ABS, (29,731 of a total 33,158) are women.
Women in pharmacy have not been afraid to use their power – and use it effectively.
In 1989, 2000 women descended on Parliament house in Canberra to protest against proposed remuneration cuts to community pharmacists. The 35 bus loads of protestors was at the time the largest protest at Parliament House by women. Since then delegations of women pharmacists have lobbied politicians on a range of issues affecting their patients, their profession and their working environment.
Despite the very high percentage of women pharmacists and pharmacy assistants, there is still a gap in women in leadership positions.
An Australian study titled Gender balance in pharmacy leadership: Are we making progress? states: “Overall, gender balance in pharmacy organisations has increased over the 21-year period (1998-20180 however, there remains a lack of women in leadership positions, particularly in the most senior positions where women held only 24 per cent of president/chair positions over the time period. In 2018 women held 34 per cent of these positions, despite representing 62 per cent of pharmacists in Australia.”
The report concluded: “Gender inequity in leadership is prevalent in the Australian pharmacy profession, although it has lessened over time. Based on the trend from 1998 to 2018 it is predicted that women will achieve an average of 50 per cent representation in Australian pharmacy professional committees no sooner than 2029.”
A report by the Canadian Pharmacists Association titled Women in pharmacy The current landscape finds: “The pharmacy profession is known to be one of the more attractive professions to women, with flexible and part-time hours, and generally positive working environments. However, research shows clear gender disparities in the way women experience their careers in the pharmacy profession. This includes disparities in career progression and seniority, where women are over-represented among pharmacy students and in staff-level positions, but greatly under-represented in senior positions such as pharmacy owners or on pharmacy governing bodies and boards. Studies also show a pay gap in general between men and women in the pharmacy profession, partly linked to seniority but not solely.”
The Guild has an action plan to enhance gender equity and diversity across the organisation and the industry.
We are committed to implementing gender balance because quite frankly, as is often stated, diversity is a matter of good business, good management and good governance.
Despite women making up the majority of pharmacists, they are under-represented among pharmacy owners and we actively want to see the proportion of women owners more representative of the number of the women in the industry overall.
We have come a long way and on this International Women’s Day let’s celebrate our achievements while not forgetting we still have more to achieve.
