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Introduction |
In June 2003, more than 120 dental educators, practitioners, researchers, public health officials, and corporate executives representing twenty-five countries and six continents gathered in Göteborg, Sweden, for the ADEA Second International Women’s Leadership Conference. The focus of this conference evolved from deliberations of the ADEA First International Women’s Leadership Conference held in Cannes/Mandelieu, France in 1998 (proceedings published in the March 1999 Journal of Dental Education). The three days over which the conference took place were filled with inspiring and informative keynote addresses, skills development workshops, panel discussions, working group sessions, and oral and poster presentations. The networking that occurred in and around these formal events provided an added bonus to all those in attendance. At the end of the three days, we discovered that the conference had reinforced our belief that we can indeed work together to promote positive change in oral health around the world.
The international exchange of ideas and information that took place affected me in at least a couple of ways. First, I felt reenergized by the reminder of what a privilege it is to be one of many women serving the profession so proudly and well around the world! When I became the first woman dean of a dental school in the United States in 1975, it was a lonely position to be in. Now, there are nine women U.S. dental deans plus many in other countries who, along with other women leaders, are breaking new ground in dental education all over the world. The emergence of women leaders in dentistry makes me feel part of a very powerful sisterhood indeed.
Second, in the United States we are still in the early stages of understanding the connections between oral and systemic health, as well as the links between oral health and the health of families and communities. Learning about how these connections are viewed and understood in other countries gave me a new perspective on oral health in my own country—one that will have a positive impact on my work in the future.
It is a privilege to present the proceedings of this conference that has done so much already. We hope by publishing these proceedings as a supplement to the esteemed Journal of Dental Education that the messages of the conference will reach an even wider audience and provide a record of the meeting in more lasting form.
Dr. Vivian Pinn’s article on "A New Mosaic for Women’s Health" leads off the proceedings with a reminder of how far our understanding of women’s health has come over the past decades. As Director of the Office of Research on Women’s Health at the U.S. National Institutes of Health, Dr. Pinn is perfectly positioned to review the expansion of the definition of women’s health and to survey the wide range of programs that now promote research in women’s health and provide support to women working in the profession. Just think: it was not too long ago that women’s health was defined as only involving the reproductive system and, as Dr. Pinn says, "the male body was viewed as the normative standard for clinical implications for both women and men." With a change in research priorities and design, we have now begun to advance along the long road to catching up.
The next section of these proceedings provides a fascinating overview of the issues and challenges faced by the dental workforce in six countries. Dr. Eyitope Ogunbodede presents information on Nigeria; Dr. Lydia Katrova on Bulgaria; Dr. Elizabeth Treasure on the United Kingdom; Dr. Anne Nordblad on Finland; Dr. Shobha Tandon on India; and Dr. Tin Chun Wong on China and Hong Kong. Although each of these authors takes a different angle in writing about his or her country’s situation, together they provide the opportunity for many interesting points of comparison and contrast.
Discussions among individuals from different countries took place in several working groups during the conference, and the next section of these proceedings includes reports from three of them. Drs. Diane Lachapelle, John Williams, and Vivianne Émond present a working group report on curriculum and education; Dr. Susan Silverton and Prof. Pamela Zarkowski present the report from the working group on women and family and oral health; and Drs. Hazel Harper and Deborah Studen-Pavlovich report on their working group on practice and community.
One of the goals of the conference was not only to introduce the participants to new ideas and perspectives, but to give them practical tools they can use to advance themselves in their own careers. The section on "How Every Woman in Oral Health Can Make a Difference" contains three outstanding examples. Dr. Adele Scheele presents in her article a series of proven action steps that help lead to achievement; Ms. Rosalyn Richman gives valuable advice on networking; and Drs. Cecile Feldman and Yolanda Bonta present lessons from the world of business in two areas: the distinctive needs of marketing to women regarding oral health and ideas for becoming more effective in the workplace by defining one’s personal brand.
In the final article, Dr. Lois Cohen reminds us of the diverse career paths women leaders have taken, as well as the variety of leadership styles they exhibit. There is no one way for women to become leaders or to have an impact, she argues, but drawing on our natural tendency to be planners, evaluators, and data-sharers, "we must create for ourselves a collaborative environment." In that way, she concludes, "We could create a powerful coalition that would create a guiding vision for ideal characteristics in leadership in oral health."
All of us who participated in the conference, as well of those of you who will learn about it through reading these proceedings, owe an enormous amount of gratitude to the organizations that cosponsored this conference: American Dental Association, Association of Canadian Faculties of Dentistry/L’Association des facultés dentaires du Canada, American Association of Women Dentists, Association for Dental Education in Europe, American Dental Hygienists’ Association, International Association for Dental Research, International Federation of Dental Education Associations, Women in Dentistry UK, National Dental Association (USA), National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (USA), Office of Research on Women’s Health of the National Institutes of Health (USA), and Oral Health America. We were delighted to again have Procter & Gamble as our primary supporter. Additional sponsors included John O. Butler Company (now renamed Sunstar Butler), Colgate-Palmolive Company, Dental Learning Systems, Hu-Friedy Manufacturing Co., Pfizer Inc Consumer Healthcare Division, and Saab Cars USA, Inc. We thank all of these corporate supporters. We are also grateful to the Board of Directors of the American Dental Education Association, as well as the numerous staff who were involved, for their support of and help with this event.
As we plan for the Third International Women’s Leadership Conference, we will build on the success of the prior conferences and use the talents, vision, and energy of emerging women leaders to improve the oral health status of all.
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Footnotes |
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