In my role as RCN Council member for Scotland, I am privileged every day to witness the remarkable skill, talent and tenacity of women in our profession. I stood for election motivated by a desire to change the historic undervaluing of nursing and women’s labour – and my ongoing commitment to this change is why I am delighted to be hosting one part of our Members Lead the RCN webinar series.
Nursing is a critical profession that underpins the safety of millions of people, but the work we do is often hidden, undervalued and misunderstood precisely because our workforce is comprised in the majority by women. Where men perform these roles, they and their work are often devalued by association.
At the RCN, women have been historically underrepresented in our governance structures, reducing our influence and authority in spaces where decisions are made for our members and our profession – a striking paradox for an overwhelmingly female workforce. For women who face racial bias, ableism, or other discrimination, biases become compounded to further inhibit their access to leadership and representation roles.
What are we doing about it?
That’s why we are hosting Members Lead the RCN, a series of webinars on leadership and governance roles. These webinars will provide important insights into the roles and an opportunity to hear more, ask questions and learn about how we can support you to lead and govern your Royal College. With elections for the Trade Union Committee and Professional Nursing Committee now open, we want to see more women, disabled and neurodivergent members and members from the Global Majority leading the profession by sitting on our influential committees.
Discrimination against women is not new or unique to nursing. It is not a lack of ambition, desire or capability that create significant barriers to access leadership roles, but systemic failure to recognise, nurture, or reward the leadership potential that already exists in women nurses. The RCN is listening and responding. Our work now is to build inclusive pathways to leadership, for women and other underrepresented members, and to challenge the processes and structures that maintain the status quo. Progress is not about hopeful rhetoric from me or others; it is about shifting structures so that more women are seen, supported and enabled into leadership and governance roles.
Why should you attend?
My message today is an invitation - not just to women who have always wondered if their voice is needed in these spaces (it is); but to every nurse who recognises that we urgently need our leaders to reflect the diversity of the nursing workforce. By standing for leadership and governance roles, you help ensure that decisions are shaped by real frontline expertise, lived experience and voices that are all too often unheard. It is also an invitation to those who may not see themselves represented in this webinar series: true reform must not rest solely upon the labour of the underrepresented. Collective action and unwavering solidarity are vital to ensure that the voices guiding our profession are rich, representative, and building a profession that values every part of itself.
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