OMA sends out apology over calendar gaffe

Medical women’s group disappointed at lack of female representation

Aspecial Ontario Medical Association 2019 calendar has the group in damage control because it nowhere mentions a single female physician.

The doctors’ association sent a mass apology last week about the calendar, which has only five women in the 26 people mentioned in a series of blurbs highlighting artifacts in the association’s collection: Queen Victoria (on a medal); Queen Elizabeth (a building); LEHRA, a talking plastic exhibit from 1961; and an unnamed greatniece of a male physician.

A sole unidentified woman can be seen in a group picture.

“We were disappointed,” said Dr. Kathee Andrews, president of the Federation of Medical Women of Canada (FMWC). “This is not reflective of women in medicine, not reflecting of the OMA; their president is a woman.”

“Seriously?” said Dr. Karen Breeck, a retired military flight surgeon when she first looked at the calendar. “In this day and age, this is not acceptable anymore.”

For its part, the OMA is in retreat.

“The calendar was to provide approximately 5,000 OMA physician advocates, elected officials and Thought Lounge members from amongst our 45,000 members with a thank you for their leadership and endeavours over the past year,” Allan O’Dette, OMA’s CEO, told the Star in an email.

“Female physicians have always been integral to the advancement and success of the OMA and its mandate,” he said. “The images selected were intended to be a snapshot of the types of artifacts which reside in the OMA’s archives, with the aim of bringing awareness of the collection to members. That there was not an accompanying note to those physicians who received the calendar explaining this context was an administrative oversight, and this will be remedied in future.”

The association sent its email apology to members Thursday acknowledging the concerns about the cost of the calendar — $15,000, O’Dette told the Star — and the lack of female representation.

The design, layout and approval for the calendar was undertaken in-house, the apology said.

Despite the good intentions of this initiative, the OMA will not be issuing a calendar in the future and will find better ways to acknowledge its members, it said.

“It was very poorly done,” Andrews said. “They did not ask female physician groups for input. They could have turned to their own Outreach to Women Physicians Committee for advice.”

The committee in 2018 organized a seminar attended by150 physicians and medical students, titled: “Gender, Conflict and Power: Navigating Misconduct, Harassment and Bullying in Medicine.”

There may be something positive coming out of this controversial initiative.

“This is a beautiful opportunity for education,” says Breeck, who already has shared a list of training suggestions with the OMA.