Written By: Claire Anderson
June 8, 2020
Pharmacy in the UK is a female-dominated profession, so it was only when I started work as an academic that I entered a more male-dominated world. I then got used to being the only person at the committee meeting without a beard! However, I have often been encouraged, well supported and mentored by many of my male colleagues and I would not have achieved all that I have without them. I was also lucky to have strong women as role models — especially my late mother, who always believed in me and encouraged me to believe that I could do whatever I wanted to.
I started off in practice but have been an academic for most of my career. I am privileged in that I love my work and feel proud of the many undergraduates and postgraduate students I have taught and mentored over my career. Many of them are now leaders in their own careers and countries. I became the first ever female chair (full professor) at my school of pharmacy in 2003 when only about 11% of professors at my university were female. That percentage is improving all the time and we now have four female professors in the school. Over 50% of academics at the university are women but still only around 20% are full professors. However, we do have a female vice chancellor (president). Although we a strive for equity it is interesting to note that during the time of COVID-19 women have been less productive with academic publications than men because of all their caring duties, and I am sure this decreased productivity has also happened in other roles.
I am passionate about pharmacy and about pharmacy education and am proud of what we have achieved in developing our MPharm course at Nottingham. I am also proud about how I have worked with colleagues around the world to develop pharmacy education. I am proud of the research I have done that has progressed the role of pharmacists, for example, as prescribers, in a public health role, and in GP surgeries, to name a few.
As chair of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society English Pharmacy Board I am privileged to be part of developing the profession, advancing pharmacy policy, and talking to the government and other stakeholders. I have been especially proud of the profession’s response to COVID-19 and was delighted when the Queen tweeted a thank you for pharmacists’ work recently.
In my early days as an FIP officer I was surrounded by whisky-drinking men but slowly it is changing, and now that we have Catherine Duggan as our first female CEO that change is accelerating. Although key decision makers remain largely, though not exclusively, older, white and male, I hope this will change over the next few years as more women put themselves forward for leadership positions. FIP now provides many opportunities for people to be mentored as young leaders. One of my pet hates is women who “pull the ladder up” after them and do not support those coming up behind them. I hope to see far more ladders and much more scaffolding to support both female and male leaders as we move forward.