It’s possible that the headline of this article might be controversial. There is a reality that almost no one will ever dispute; men and women are different. Not only physically, but mentally.


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Most of it is learned behavior, as each of us grows into our defined societal roles. For most of thinking man’s life history, men and women have been kept separate in some way by those societal roles, and therefore had no reason to ever really try to learn anything about the other. Well, those days are changing, and if things are ever going to work out, like with any look at diverse peoples, we need to start looking at how women are positively affecting some businesses, and what it could mean in other businesses.

I had a networking lunch once with a young man who was new to health care. He was a well educated person working on his doctorate, and he came to health care via the corporate road. His specific duties weren’t necessarily related to health care, more to computer systems, but he had to interact with medical personnel on a daily, almost constant basis.

He said that when he first started working at the hospital, he felt like he was out of his element. It wasn’t that he felt overwhelmed by the type of knowledge that people had, or anything technical. He said he was unprepared for the types of emotions and interactions that tend to take place in a medical facility. He said that people in health care seemed to react rather than take a moment to think, and that they tended to voice their thoughts way more often than in the corporate world.

I asked him an interesting question; I asked him how many women he was used to working with before coming to the hospital. He admitted that he rarely met any women in his corporate world. He asked if I thought this made a significant difference in health care, and I said yes.

Health care is one of few fields where women have a greater chance at making significant impacts in the business environment than most other industries. Women account for 94.6% of working registered nurses in America. Women account for 97.3% of all business office personnel in health care in America. Women account for around 46% of all director, manager, or supervisor positions in hospitals in America. Though male doctors still greatly outpace female doctors, 73% to 27% as of 2002, the gap is decreasing. And there are more female hospital presidents or CEOs than in any other profession other than education in the country. Women still earn about 19% less in health care than their male counterparts; unfortunately, some issues are harder to overcome than others.

Why is this significant when we’re talking about business in general? John Gray wrote in “Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus” this particular quote: “A women under stress is not immediately concerned with finding solutions to her problems but rather seeks relief by expressing herself and being understood.” Although he was talking more about relationships, the reality is that women are different from men, and they bring a different dynamic to the workplace.

Health care should be a sociologists dream if they ever wanted to really see a true dynamic in how women and men work with each other when the numbers are different than what’s considered the norm. For that matter, looking at how people in health care work in general should be mandatory study, a science lab of sorts, for any sociologist hoping to get a Ph.D.

There are few positions in health care where the pressure to succeed isn’t constant. In most companies, if you make a mistake, it might end up costing a few dollars. In health care, in many departments, a mistake could cost someone’s life, which in turn could cost millions of dollars in both fines and lawsuits. I remember a sign at one hospital that read “If we’re only 99% efficient, it means 1,000 lives are lost for every 100,000 people we see.” On average, every mistake made in health care that ends up in loss of life costs close to $500,000 in lawsuits, fines, re-training, and malpractice insurance costs.

Every single position in health care is ultimately responsible for hundreds of thousands of dollars. If housekeeping doesn’t clean properly, OSHA could levy huge fines. If equipment isn’t inspected on mandated schedules, fines. If a medical records coder enters a code incorrectly on a consistent basis, even if it was an honest mistake based on the particular rules learned when that person went to school, fines and possibly jail time. If a registration person doesn’t obtain authorizations, no fines, but loss of reimbursement because insurance companies are sticklers for regulations. I’ve already mentioned the pressure medical practitioners in all departments are under.

It is in that dynamic that John Gray’s words ring true. Most men under stress will hold it and hold it until, eventually, they either cave or explode. Most women don’t usually allow themselves to wait quite that long. Even if the possibility is that the warnings of errors occurring are exaggerated, women will try to bring them to someone’s attention, and they will not be dismissed easily. Many men will see a problem, try to determine how big a problem they feel it is, and if they don’t feel it’s critical they won’t say anything, possibly hoping the issue goes away.

For men only working with other men, their process seems to work mentally. For women working with other women, their process seems to work mentally. Each side is used to how they interact with their own gender, whether they feel it’s perfect or not. However, bring them together, and that’s when the fun begins.

In the corporate world, women learn quickly what they have to do in order to have any chance of moving up the ladder. More women will try to change how they are outside of work from how they are at work. In the health care field, because of the numbers, women are more readily allowed to be themselves, express concerns as they come up, and keep on those above them until they get some kind of answer that they can live with, agreeable or not.

What I’ve noticed over the last almost 30 years is how more men in health care are taking on the attributes of women when it comes to addressing issues, and personally I believe this is a good thing. There’s too much at stake to try to shove problems under the rug. There’s also this thing about compassion that women are, by osmosis, injecting more men in health care with. In many ways, it’s not only about the bottom line anymore; it’s more about the co-workers, the patients, and the community at large.

Corporate America hasn’t learned the lessons yet. Forget the Fortune 500; there aren't many 19 female CEOs in the Fortune 1000. The last time I looked there were only eight women CEOs in the Fortune 500, and 90 of those 500 companies didn’t have any women corporate officers at all. In some high tech industries, women account for less than 10% of the workforce.

No wonder my new friend wasn’t prepared for the health care environment. Sure, he knew women, but hadn’t much experience in working with them. I asked him if he’d gotten used to it over time. He said not only had he gotten used to it, but he much preferred it to what he had been in before, and dreaded the day when he might leave health care and go back into the corporate world. I tend to see it differently; I think the corporate world will benefit from his experience if he goes back, and women might benefit from it in the long run.

Who was it that said diversity was bad? 🙂