Kathryn Tompsett is a consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist and a member of our Women’s Network and reference group. To mark International Women’s Day, she spoke about her role in the network, and how the NHS can improve as a place for women to work and receive care.

Explaining the role of the network, she said: “Our Women’s Network brings together the data and the stories to help us articulate the challenges women face, as well as some of the great things they’re doing. We bring the lived experience and the cognitive diversity of women and everything being a woman entails.

“The Women’s Network alone can’t change things. Hopefully we will get to a point where we are all valued, respected and we work with people’s differences. We are not at that point yet. We’re still looking at numbers and data; we are still looking at how inequality affects us rather than looking at how inclusivity can benefit us.”

Discussing her motivation for getting involved with her network, Kathryn said: “I’m a feminist (with a little ‘f’!) I had an experience early in my education during my physics A-level. I remember a male teacher giving out physics books which had blue covers. He said: “Unfortunately they don’t do them in pink. And I wonder if we should give them to the girls as the books are expensive and they don’t stay the course?” This was in the nineties, so I am sure things are different now. But, from an early age, it stuck with me.

“I have always been vocal about equality. I have three daughters and I work in women’s health so I have a responsibility to speak up about women’s issues.”

Explaining some of the challenges women have at work, Kathryn said: “Women have lots of competing priorities such as choosing to have children, or when to have children. My husband is a doctor and became a GP to make it easier for our family for me to be a hospital doctor. He does the childcare while I am on call for example. Some people don’t have this support.

“One of the ways we can improve opportunities for women is through flexible working. I am the labour ward lead, and I have agreed with my divisional director to undertake this work flexibly. I work full time however, because of my on call, I have Thursdays off. This allows me to feel properly remunerated for my job and also means I can take my kids to school and pick them up one day a week.

“Technology will also help us work flexibly too. The world is a much more complex environment in terms of managing competing priorities.”

Kathryn highlighted the cultural shift needed for women to access leadership positions in the NHS: “We need women to become leaders and not have to fit into the traditional leadership style. We need them to lead as themselves, and for this to be a credible and valued way of leading.

“A colleague of mine is a clinical director and in the same speciality as me at another Trust. She has had children, has done research, and stands up for and is true to her values. Having other women like that shows you it can be done.”

As well as being interested in making the NHS a better place for women to work, Kathryn’s speciality of Obstetrics and Gynaecology means the care of women by the NHS is also important to her. Kathryn said: “Having a baby is such an important moment in a woman’s life. Having a care giver in that moment that genuinely cares about you makes a huge difference. This feeling has been cemented by my own experience of pregnancy and as a mother, which drives me to want to give the best care for women. This means explaining things properly, or giving them real choice and respecting their autonomy.

“While working at another Trust, I was looking after a woman with a massive haemorrhage due to a women’s health issue. We needed some imaging and tests urgently, and we had to wait hours. A man who had had a motorbike accident came in and immediately got all of those things. It felt like the system was set up to deal with those issues. My patient, as a woman with a women’s health issue, had to wait, but needed urgent care too.

“Obstetrics and maternity care isn’t always given the same kudos as other specialities. I find that strange because it is one area of medicine everyone needs at some point – whether you are giving birth, or it’s a family member or a friend. And, because we are often caring for young, healthy women, it can be someone’s first window into the NHS.”