The Medical Women Podcast

Tomorrow, the first Wednesday in August, will be the first day of being a doctor for all foundation year one doctors in the UK. It will also be the first day that many doctors start specialty training or become a more senior specialty trainee. Understandably, lots of doctors in this situation will be feeling a mixture of excitement and pure terror! We thought it would be helpful to hear from our j...

It’s the season 1 finale so we needed a very special guest, and who better than MWF President Elect Professor Scarlett McNally! Scarlett is an orthopaedic surgeon, exercise advocate, mother of four and all round inspiring medical woman. Scarlett joins us to speak about her career, and she shares what she has learnt over the last few years of being both a doctor and a patient, and exciting things s...

Have you ever wished you could do something about the negative voices in your head? Perhaps you have the courage to apply for something, and then your inner critic tells you that you are not good enough. Or you want to get on with some important work but your perfectionist stops you from submitting it until it’s perfect. If this sounds familiar, you are in good company. We all have a whole host of...

This warm weather has made me think of the Mary Oliver poem the Summer Day, which ends with the question, “Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?” So often when we are going through medical school or the training treadmill, or whatever stage of our career we are in, it’s so easy to stay focused on how busy things are and everything that we need to do, that we can...

Do you wonder how you’ll balance your career ambitions with having a family? Whether you’re already a parent or hoping to be a parent in the future, it’s likely that you’ve thought about how to juggle work with other aspects of your life. Research examining women in leadership shows that because the time at which we start progressing to leadership roles coincides with the biological time window fo...

The Medical Women’s Federation was founded in February 1917, so sadly we can’t speak to the founders on our podcast about their experience. 100 years later, inspired by the centenary of the Medical Women’s Federation, Dr Sarah Fitzgibbon set up WIMIN – women in medicine in Ireland network. Sarah joins us on the podcast to share how she set up the organisation. She also speaks about other things go...

During this week, the 9th of June marks Dr Elizabeth Garrett Anderson’s 186th Birthday. Dr Garrett Anderson became the first woman in the UK to gain a license to practice medicine in in 1865. Our guest this week is Briony Hudson who is a museum curator and pharmacy and medical historian. Briony shares stories of medical women throughout history, how it can be difficult to uncover their stories as...

Most of us are taught in medical school that male and female bodies are the same except the reproductive systems. Most medical research and practice is male-centric, but we are now starting to learn that there are more differences than just the reproductive systems. Dr Jeannette Wolfe is a Professor of Emergency Medicine at the University of Massachusetts Chan School of Medicine-Baystate. She is a...

This week’s episode is packed full of wisdom as we are joined by the wonderful Dame Clare Gerada and Professor Sir Simon Wessley. Clare is a GP and the current President of the Royal College of General Practitioners. She’s also a past Honorary Secretary of the Medical Women’s Federation. Simon is a psychiatrist and Past President of the Royal Society of Medicine and the Royal College of Psychiatri...

Has the pandemic made you consider the importance of public engagement in science? Well, this week’s guest is just the person to speak to us about this. Professor Alice Roberts is an anatomist and anthropologist, well-known for her documentaries and books on health and our ancestors, and she is Professor of Public Engagement in Science. Alice shares her experience of public engagement in science a...

It’s Mental Health Awareness Week this week and we’re speaking about the importance of doctors giving themselves permission to thrive and look after themselves. We have two guests this week! Dr Caroline Walker is a psychiatrist, therapist, coach and host of podcast The Joyful Doctor. Dr Rachel Morris is a GP turned coach and you might recognise her voice from her wonderful podcast You Are Not a Fr...

Whilst there are lots of system issues holding women back in their careers, do you ever wonder if there is anything in your control to influence how you can rise in your career? Or how you can help other women rise? This week’s guest is Sally Helgesen, co-author of the bestselling book ‘How women rise: break the 12 habits holding you back’. Sally shares some of the most common habits that research...

Have you ever felt nervous about making a phone call or giving a presentation or speaking up in a meeting? This week’s guest is voice coach and author Caroline Goyder. Caroline shares with us exercises we can do to help strengthen our voices, her top tips for feeling confident when giving a presentation, and how we all have gravitas. The aim of this podcast is to empower and support as many medica...

We’ve explored leadership in several previous episodes, but we’ve focused on individual leadership journeys so this week we examine women’s leadership on a global level. Our guest this week is Professor Rosie Campbell, Director of the Global Institute for Women’s Leadership at King’s College London. Rosie discusses the studies that the Institute are doing to examine women’s leadership and how we m...

This week we’re tackling everyone’s favourite subject – imposter syndrome! Ok it’s not really anyone’s favourite topic but it tends to be the big elephant in the room that doesn’t always get addressed. It’s time to own our imposter syndrome and address it! Our guest this week is the fantastic Susie Edwards who is a careers coach with a lot of experience working with medics at all stages of their c...

Welcome to Episode 10!! This week, we speak to the wonderful Dr Olamide Dada who is an FY1 and CEO and Founder of Melanin Medics, a non-profit organisation that supports African and Caribbean medics. Olamide shares her leadership journey, why she thinks it is important to discuss intersectionality in medicine, and how we can all be allies to one another. Olamide’s book recommendations: Boundaries...

We’ve got one of our male honorary members on the show this week! Mr Simon Fleming is an orthopaedic registrar who is passionate about combating bullying, undermining and harassment in healthcare. More recently, he has been speaking up about sexual harassment and assault in surgery. Simon shares with us why it’s important for all of us to speak up and tackle bullying and harassment so that togethe...

It’s Mothering Sunday in the UK this coming Sunday, and whilst many of our members may be mothers, we wanted to explore motherhood in a way that would be applicable to all listeners regardless of their parenthood status. There are many parallels between being a parent and being a healthcare worker. Our guest this week is Zoe Blaskey, who is a coach and has a very successful podcast called Motherki...

On this week’s podcast, we are discussing a topic that doesn’t usually get discussed – money. An important aspect of being empowered in our careers is being confident in managing our money. But few of us have been taught about our finance at school or medical school. This week, we speak to Dr Nikki Ramskill, GP and women’s money coach, to discuss how we can get started managing our money. Nikki sh...

** Special episode klaxon! ** Happy International Women’s Day 2022! You are in for an extra special treat this week – why speak to one inspiring medical woman when you can speak to 21 MWF Presidents! We will be hearing from our Presidents from 1992-2022 who share with us their favourite memories of MWF, why it is an important organisation to them, their advice and lessons they have learnt, achieve...

When the Medical Women’s Federation was founded in 1917, the gender pay gap was one of the main areas of their focus. 105 years later, sadly we still have a gender pay gap in medicine. If we understand what contributes to the gender pay gap, we can work to address the issue and make changes so that in another 100 years, the gender pay gap is a historical issue. To discuss this topic is Professor D...

Episode 4: Stepping into leadership with Professor Chloe Orkin This week our guest is our current President, Professor Chloe Orkin. Chloe is a Professor of HIV medicine; working both clinically and academically, running Phase III clinical trials. She is also Athena Swan and EDI lead at her Faculty. Chloe shares her advice for those getting started on their leadership journeys and shares some reall...

This week, we are joined by Sandra Pinnington, women’s leadership coach and founder of the Women Leaders Association or WLA. We all have doubts about our abilities and our careers. The trouble is, we rarely share those doubts, so we don’t realise we are in good company and can work together to challenge our self-doubts. The aim of this episode is to reassure you that you are not the only one who h...

This week’s episode is with our immediate Past President, Professor Neena Modi. Neena is Professor of Neonatology at Imperial College Hospital. She is a Past President of several organisations including the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, the Academic Paediatric Association of Great Britain and the Neonatal Society. She is currently the President of the British Medical Association....

Welcome to the first episode of the Medical Women Podcast! On the 1st of February 1917, a group of medical women gathered in a Tavern by the Thames to form the Medical Women’s Federation (MWF), with the aim of supporting medical women in their careers. 105 years on, we are continuing their work and launching this podcast with the aim of supporting and empowering as many medical women in their care...