Pharmacy Times Webcast: Women Pharmacist Day

In recognition of Women Pharmacist Day on October 12, a panel of leading women in pharmacy discuss the history and significance of women in the field, including changing demographics, the pay gap between men and women in pharmacy, changes in policy and culture, tips for pharmacist moms and different career paths within pharmacy.

Expert panelists include moderator Suzanne Soliman, PharmD, BCMAS, founder of the Pharmacist Moms Group; Alexandra Broadus, PharmD, director, patient outcomes performance for Walgreens; Kate Gainer, PharmD, executive vice president and CEO, Iowa Pharmacy Association; Brooke Griffin, PharmD, vice chair of clinical services, Midwestern University; and Linda MacLean, BPharm, vice dean of external relations, professor of pharmacotherapy, Washington State University.

Soliman, who founded #WomenPharmacistDay in 2018, explained that for 4 decades, women have comprised the majority of pharmacy school graduates, but remained a minority among deans of the colleges of pharmacy from which those students were graduating.

“When I started pharmacy school back in the year 2000, there were 82 colleges of pharmacy, and there were about 15 female deans,” Soliman said. “Now there’s 143 colleges of pharmacy and their number of deans is only 25. So, looking in terms of academia, there really hasn't been an increase in women deans.”

Panelist Brooke Griffin, PharmD, vice chair of clinical services at Midwestern University, said that one way to support the process of more women pursuing leadership roles in pharmacy could be through the projection of the accessibility and relatability of those roles by the women currently in them.

“I think if we want more women in leadership positions, then women in leadership positions like ourselves need to think about what externally we are projecting in terms of our busyness badge that we like to wear, and how stressed we are at certain times,” Griffin said. “If we can make our current positions more relatable, then I think we'll see more women coming up the ranks.”

The official sponsor of #WomenPharmacistDay is Cardinal Health, with special thanks to Florajen, First Financial Bank, and Neuriva.