Formed to address gender inequities in healthcare careers and an entrenched culture of harassment, Time’s Up Healthcare has grown over the past six months to a group of 50 founding members and 13 senior advisors, and is associated with a network of healthcare institutions. The latest to join is Philadelphia-based Thomas Jefferson University and Jefferson Health.
The Time’s Up movement was formed in response to the common experience of power inequity and unsafe workplaces for women and other underrepresented groups everywhere. Women in healthcare took notice and decided to form their own Time’s Up movement.
Resa E. Lewiss, M.D., a professor of emergency medicine, and Heather J. Logghe, M.D., a surgical research fellow at Thomas Jefferson University, are among founding members. By signing the Time’s Up Healthcare commitment, Jefferson pledges to cultivate a professional and compassionate workplace environment preventing sexual harassment and gender inequity, while protecting and aiding those vulnerable to harassment and discrimination.
“Sexual harassment and gender inequality have no place at Jefferson or anywhere in healthcare or education,” said Stephen K. Klasko, M.D., M.B.A., president of Thomas Jefferson University and CEO of Jefferson Health, in a statement. “I am proud that Thomas Jefferson University’s own Resa Lewiss and Heather Logghe are founding members of Time’s Up Healthcare, and that now the enterprise as a whole has pledged to support them – and all employees—in continuing to cultivate a safe, respectful and equitable workplace.”
The movement is made up of women from diverse backgrounds and specialties ranging from emergency medicine to psychiatry. Its founders and leaders represent a wide spectrum of healthcare professionals including doctors, nurses, physician assistants, clinical pharmacists and more.
Time’s Up Healthcare is also supported by a range of partners including the American Medical Women’s Association, American College of Physicians, Service Employees International Union, American Nurses Association and Council of Medical Subspecialties. These organizations have publicly declared their commitment to its organizational principles: 1) sexual harassment and gender inequity have no place in the health care workplace; 2) every employee should have equitable opportunity, support and compensation; and 3) we cannot address a problem without understanding its scope and impact.
