Women Liaison Officers

Characteristics of Effective Women Liaison Officers and WIM Programs

Women Liaison Officers

WLOs play a major role in fostering women's networking and in developing and sharing resources within and among medical centers. WLOs are appointed by medical school deans, major teaching hospital CEOs, and member academic societies. The primary responsibility of a WLO is to make available to others information channeled through AAMC to include regular mailings of WIM's quarterly newsletter (WIM Update), and the annual Women in U.S. Academic Medicine Statistics report. All WLOs are invited to participate in the AAMC annual meeting where the WLO Caucus is held.

Ideally WLOs are well-connected within their institutions and have a demonstrated interest in improving the environment for women students, faculty or administrators. When two are appointed, a balance is desirable such that, for instance, if the first WLO works primarily with students, the second one should be close to faculty issues. The level of activity of a WLO will be greatly influenced by: financial support; the amount of time she can spare for this activity; her level of security (e.g., tenure) and the extent of her network; the stage of maturity of the medical school or hospital's WIM program, e.g., new initiative or long-established women faculty organization; the existence of other active local groups and leaders on campus, e.g., AMWA, university ombudsperson, chancellor's advisory committee on women; the extent to which other faculty, students and staff at the institution are working and volunteering with her; and backing of the dean or CEO.

The most effective WLOs:

• help provide continuity to women student and/or faculty groups and initiate programs targeted at their professional development;
• maintain close contact in AAMC WIM office and serve as liaison with other professional women's groups and as a speaker on gender-related issues;
• promote recruitment of women faculty and administrators; maintain communication with the institution's affirmative action officer; and help identify appropriate candidates and sources of candidates;
• respond to media requests and inquiries in conjunction with the public affairs office;
• represent the institution on local, state and national committees addressing women's concerns.

Women in Medicine programs (WIM) programs take a great many forms including:

• Women faculty organizations (with the organizing unit being the medical school, the university organization or a department for example, respectively, U. of Arkansas' Women's Faculty Development Caucus, U. of Kentucky's Women in Science and Medicine, and U. of Cincinnati Department of Pediatrics Women Faculty Association.
• Dean's standing committee, e.g., U. of Virginia School of Medicine's Committee on Women, East Tennessee's Committee on Women and Gender Issues.
• WIM office, e.g. Cornell's Office of Women in Medicine and Science, departmental committees or organizations, e.g., Johns Hopkins Department of Medicine's Task Force on Women's Academic Careers.

Whatever the evolved or chosen locus, these programs tend to contribute initiatives and energy far beyond the scope of "women's issues"-which is an inaccurate label in any case because the issues addressed are not restricted to women but "ours" as a society and a profession. At many schools, WIM programs have initiated or contributed to initiatives to improve diversity, professionalism, mentoring, promotion and tenure policies, part-time faculty policies, and leadership skill development.

The most comprehensive analysis to date of initiatives to develop women faculty examined the seven medical schools identified by the DHHS as Centers of Excellence (COE) in Women's Health. These schools focused on improvements not specific to women: heightening department chairs' focus on faculty development needs, preparing educational materials on promotion and tenure procedures, improving parental leave policies, allowing temporary stops on the tenure probationary clock and a less than full-time interval without permanent penalty, and conducting exit interviews with departing faculty. Surveying faculty about their career development experiences and their perceptions of the environment, comparing the responses of men and women, and presenting the results to faculty and administrators have proved particularly useful. As other schools have found as well, this process establishes a baseline, builds institutional support and guides initiatives.

However, as AAMC's Increasing Women Leadership Project Implementation Committee has found, too many WIM programs depend solely upon volunteered time, meaning they are always in jeopardy. Financial support is a necessary but not sufficient ingredient of effective initiatives. Other ingredients are a respected leader's commitment, a strong women faculty organization with multiple sources of energy, and the assistance of an organizational development expert or other change-facilitator.

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