A toolkit to improve practice environments for women in pharmaceutical science and pharmacy education is released by FIP today. The toolkit was developed by the FIP Women in Science and Education (FIPWiSE) Enabling Workplaces Working Group and builds on the federation’s collaborative work with the World Health Professions Alliance to ensure positive practice environments for healthcare professionals. It raises awareness of five key domains that require attention:

• Equal incentives for equal work;
• Work-life balance;
• Creating supportive and safe working environments;
• Opportunities for professional development, recognition and empowerment; and
• Women in leadership.

The toolkit presents possible solutions that can be implemented by professionals, employers and policymakers to generate and maintain supportive working environments, accompanied by case studies. Although women comprise the majority of the health and care workforce, they are underrepresented in the science, technology and education workforce. In addition, when it comes to career progression, there are significant differences between genders in these fields. For example, there is evidence that women have fewer papers published, the toolkit notes.

“We see women making an extraordinary contribution to global health, but not yet being rewarded equally with men in pay, leadership or career progression. By creating and maintaining positive practice environments we can help women to achieve their full potential in all sectors, including in education and science. The FIPWiSE toolkit focuses on education and science workplaces, but learnings can be expanded across the entire pharmaceutical workforce. When an environment is supportive, enabling and collaborative, we can all thrive,” said FIP CEO Catherine Duggan.

FIPWiSE is part of FIP’s EquityRx programme, which drives FIP Development Goal 10 (Equity and equality).