Gender diversity of the oral health leadership in Australia

Background

Gender diversity in oral health leadership is important. Globally, this is dominated by men and does not equitably represent the increasing women in the workforce.

Methods

Publicly available and gathered data on leadership positions for Australian professional associations, accrediting body, specialist academies, training institutions and the public dental sector were analysed for gender (men and women) diversity.

Results

The gender diversity of the leadership varies across the oral health organizations and training institutions. Of the 383 identified leadership positions, 229 (60%) are held by men. Of the eight national dentist association presidents, six (75%) are men. Of the 65 leadership positions across 13 training institutions, 39 (59%) are held by men, and all schools training dentists are led by men. Men also dominate leadership roles in the specialist academies (62%), the research organizations (56%) and public dental sector (67%). Women do have the majority of senior leadership roles in the accrediting body (67%).

Conclusion

Gender diversity of the oral health leadership shows some positive findings, but there is still an effort required to increase women leaders across many areas of this leadership. This should urgently be recognized as a problem, with the implementation of strategies to address this important issue. © 2023 Australian Dental Association.