International Women’s Day is a global day in which we celebrate the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women all over the world.
It’s also a day to raise awareness of women’s equality and this year the theme is “Choose to Challenge” – from challenge comes change.
This year, we celebrate #IWD2021 differently due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As GPs, this will be a busy Monday – not just doing our regular work helping our patients but also managing the huge challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. But it’s a day of hope – we are coming to the end of the first phase of the vaccination programme, in which our vulnerable over 85’s will be getting their first jab.So as GPs and women we won’t get a lot of time to celebrate International Women’s Day amid all this hustle and bustle of a practice working in the “new normal” behind closed doors and doing so much online.
More and more women are choosing General Practice as a career, here in Ireland and internationally: just over half of Irish GPs here are female, while one third of those are working part-time.
As a College we have many women in high profile positions including those who have provided leadership during the COVID-19 pandemic, notably Dr Nuala O’Connor and Dr Mary Favier. At Board, Council and Committee level female GPs contribute equally with their male counterparts to the policy and future direction of our College.
We look forward to the continuing progress towards equality across all levels of the health service between our male and female workers – all of them working in unison towards the return of a normal society and workplace for everyone.