FIP Women in Science and Education (WiSE)

Enabling positive practice environments for women in science and education with FIPWiSE toolkit  

Positive practice environments (PPEs) support the recruitment and retention of employees, enable the delivery of high-quality work outcomes, and benefit society as a whole. It is necessary to provide equal rights, obligations, equal treatment, and opportunities for all genders according to their needs to achieve gender equity and PPEs in workplaces. FIP developed the FIPWiSE (the FIP Women in Science and Education initiative) toolkit for positive practice environments for women in science and education to support and enable them by building on the World Health Professional Alliances (WHPA) PPE campaign. FIP is a founding member of the WHPA and used the toolkit as a basis to describe and identify factors that enable PPEs from a pharmaceutical science and pharmacy education perspective. The toolkit provides a set of possible solutions related to women in science and education for individuals, employers, institutions, and policymakers, as well as real-life exam.

Toolkit: FIPWiSE toolkit for positive practice environments for women in science and education

FIP’s initiative for Women in Science and Education has built on the World Health Professions Alliance (WHPA) Positive Practice Environments Campaign and developed the “FIPWiSE toolkit for positive practice environments for women in science and education” (FIPWiSE toolkit) to identify and address inequalities in workplace environments that affect women in these fields. The toolkit is designed to raise awareness and provide possible solutions for individuals, employers and institutions that can enable positive practice environments for women in pharmaceutical sciences and pharmacy education, and provides learnings that are transferable across the entire pharmaceutical workforce.

In the FIPWiSE toolkit, you can explore key factors that have influence on practice environments and find practical solutions to enable positive practice environments tailored for professionals in science and education, employers (e.g., academic and research institutions, pharmaceutical industry) and policy makers (e.g., national professional bodies).

The FIPWiSE toolkit includes interviews on positive practice environments with Dr Roopa Dhatt, executive director of Women in Global Health, USA, and Howard Catton, WHPA 2021 chair and CEO of the International Council of Nurses, Switzerland.

We invite you to utilise the FIPWiSE toolkit to stand up for positive practice environments by:

• Circulating it on your social media, across your educational and scientific networks, in your university or organisation’s newsletters, and at events and lectures you attend;
• Amplifying the campaign messages by sharing the social media cards (which can be found in FIPWiSE toolkit Chapter 4) on your social media, or on your presentations;
• Printing and displaying the campaign poster (which can be found in FIPWiSE toolkit Chapter 4) at your workplace to pledge your commitment to positive practice environments;
• Chairing sessions on positive practice environments at conferences, giving keynote speeches, and presenting the FIPWiSE toolkit at national meetings;
• Running workshops to educate your employees on the benefits of positive practice environments;
• Using the case studies in the FIPWiSE toolkit to make the case for positive practice environments to your employer or government;
• Advocating with government and other key decision makers to mainstream positive practice environments; and
• Celebrating if your workplace is already a positive practice environment and sharing your good practices with FIP at equity@fip.org.

FIPWiSE 2020 activity report

Supporting young professionals and students against COVID-19 related disruptions to education and research 

FIPWiSE released a special edition newsletter featuring stories of young female professionals and pharmacy students and how they adapted to learning under the COVID-19 pandemic. There was a common undertone of hope and persistence in all the stories

EquityRx women in pharmacy blogs 

FIPWiSE contributes to the EquityRx women in pharmacy blogs to offer a platform to women in the pharmacy profession to talk about their career development and share views on gender equity in pharmacy.

FIPWiSE Interview Series

The FIPWiSE Interview series aims to discuss challenges faced by women at work and solutions to these challenges. The aim is to give insights into gender inequality among women in science and education, and to provide the viewer with inspiration from the speakers featured in these interviews.

Reflecting on successes and looking to the future: Showcase of the FIP Women in Science and Education Programme

To celebrate 3rd anniversary of FIPWiSE programme, a special event titled Reflecting on successes and looking to the future: Showcase of the FIP Women in Science and Education Programme was conducted on 14 February 2023.

FIPWiSE Women’s Leadership Lab 

Women are powerful agents of change, and the benefits and effectiveness of equitable representation in leadership and decision-making are evident. To discuss the under-representation of women in decision-making processes, FIPWiSE organised an influential virtual leadership lab alongside the FIP Virtual 2020 Congress. We featured the following inspirational speakers: 

• Meltem Agduk, gender programme coordinator at the United Nations Population Fund, Turkey; 
• Nadia Abdelhadi, North Africa country manager, Medtronic, Algeria; 
• Christina Chai, head of pharmacy department, National University of Singapore, Singapore; 
• Leonora O’Brien, founder & CEO, Pharmapod, Ireland; 
• Vibhuti Arya Amirfar, associate clinical professor at St John’s University College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, and clinical advisor to the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, USA; and 
• Aya Jamal, president, International Pharmaceutical Students Federation, Sudan. 

FIPWiSE Web Panel: “COVID-19: Women front and centre”

The FIPWiSE Web Panel, part of FIP’s “Responding to the pandemic together” series, took place in June 2020. The session was moderated by Claire Thompson, FIPWiSE chair (UK) and facilitated by Nilhan Uzman, lead for education policy and implementation, FIPWiSE programme lead (The Netherlands). 

Featured in the web panel were a diverse group of panellists: 

• Mariam El Boakye-Gyasi, senior lecturer, academic capacity lead, FIPWiSE member (Ghana); 
• Ecehan Balta, senior advisor to the president, Turkish Pharmacists Association, FIPWiSE member (Turkey); 
• Rajani Shakya, head, Kathmandu University, AIM Advisory Committee member; FIPWiSE member (Nepal); and 
• Anyango Esther, intern, hospital pharmacist, FIPWiSE member and intern (Kenya). 

FIPWiSE Rising Stars 

To celebrate the 2nd anniversary of FIPWiSE, on International Day of Women and Girls in Science, FIP launched a new initiative: the FIPWiSE Rising Stars list. 

A list of “FIPWiSE Rising Stars” will recognise exceptional women in pharmaceutical sciences and pharmacy education, selected by a FIPWiSE panel, based on achievements, innovations, and significant impacts made. The list aims to foster equity, equality, diversity and inclusion among individuals, organisations and policy makers. 

You can watch the video to find more about FIPWiSE Rising Stars initiative.

2022 FIPWiSE Rising Stars 

You may get to know 2022 FIPWiSE rising stars and tune in to the video chats from here. 

The FIPWiSE Rising Stars list aims to encourage and inspire women in pharmaceutical sciences and pharmacy education, sitting alongside existing mentorship programmes. Please see below the suggestion criteria: 

1. 1.  A pharmacist, pharmaceutical scientist or pharmaceutical educator;
   2. Who identifies as female;
   3. Who has had no more than 15 years in their current career from their latest degree* (This criterion is subject to an opportunity for taking career breaks or working part-time into account);  
   4. And who can demonstrate achievements, innovation and/or impact in pharmaceutical sciences and/or pharmacy education (including pharmaceutical practice research) and being a pathfinder in the profession, despite challenges in her career path. 

*Post BPharm/MPharm/PharmD, if the applicant’s current career is in pharmacy and is therefore as a result of these degrees; OR post BSc/MSc/PhD, if the applicant’s current career is in pharmaceutical sciences or in academia, research or industry, where the degree is required to be able to hold their position. 

FIP Young Pharmacists’ Group (YPG) Mentorship Programme 

FIPWiSE is collaborating with FIP YPG on a mentorship programme to support young women professionals by recognising the gender-specific challenges they face in areas of pharmaceutical sciences and pharmacy education. 

FIPWiSE provided mentors from the FIPWiSE community who are linked up with mentees. The mentors are linked with their mentees for a period of nine months, with the intention of setting goals, providing general advice, tips and strategies to navigate gender-specific challenges, and helping both young female and male pharmacists and pharmaceutical scientists to keep on track of their career development.

FIPWiSE & Fearless podcast series 

Hosted by FIPWiSE chair Claire Thompson, the “FIPWiSE & Fearless” podcasts features interviews with women in pharmaceutical science and education. Listeners will learn how speakers have carved their career paths, and the challenges they have faced along the way. We will also hear about when they have been fearless, and what happened as a result. 

• • Episode 1: Vibhuti Arya, FIP Workforce Development Hub lead for FIP Development Goal 10 – Equity & Equality (USA). 
  • Episode 2: Sini Eskola, Director, Regulatory, Drug Development and Manufacturing EFPIA (Belgium) 
  • Episode 3: Reenu Yadav, Vice president, Human rights & social justice committee, Professor, Dean & Scientist (India) 
  • Episode 4. Christina Chai, Head of Department, National University of Singapore (Singapore) 

FIPWiSE Words video series 

We released the FIPWiSE Words video series alongside the launch of FIPWiSE on February 11 2020, which allows women and their male allies in science and education to share their stories. 

Watch the “FIPWiSE Words” launch video and learn about FIPWiSE’s vision, mission and priority advocacy areas here. 

Watch the “FIPWiSE Words” first anniversary video and learn about FIPWiSE’s exciting plans for 2021 and beyond here. 

Watch the other episodes of “FIPWiSE Words” by clicking below: 

• • Dalal Hammoudi Halat: How women leaders in pharmaceutical sciences are combating the COVID-19 pandemic 
  • Bahijja Raimi-Abraham: Women shaping pharmaceutical sciences 
  • Dalia Bajis: Resilience in academia and mental health 
  • Erem Bilensoy: What has COVID-19 taught women in pharmaceutical sciences? 
  • Lawrencia Louise Brown: Notice your people and be flexible in developing yourself 
  • Tina Brock: Overcoming gender-specific obstacles for career advancement 
  • Charlotte Rossing: Tactics to achieve work life balance