Table 2. Summary of themes and sub-themes of outcomes of a leadership fellowship for female Ethiopian health science faculty
Theme Sub-Theme Direct Quotes
Career progress

   •   Overall satisfaction

   •   Future goals

“I can say that I am very much happy. I am satisfied with my profession and with the things that I have accomplished so far.” (Fellow 6, female)

“After I took that leadership training, I was motivated and I have different skills. Before the fellowship and after the fellowship, I was not the same.” (Fellow 3, female)

Barriers to desired career

   •   Lack of resources

   •   Excess responsibilities

   •   Scarcity of advancement opportunities for women

   •   Effect of gender

“I enjoy teaching, although it’s not very easy to do research because of so many problems, I’m trying now to get involved in student’s research.”  (Fellow 3, female)

“…I do feel because when you are a female even if you have a job that you earn something, you contribute to the economy of the family, but still when you go back home you are a woman.” (Fellow 4, female)

“I don’t feel like [gender] has been to [my] advantage. I feel we had to work twice as hard to prove ourselves.” (Fellow 8, female)

Advantages/strengths of fellowship

   •   Development of professional skills, including positive attitude and motivation

   •   Leadership training, increased personal confidence

   •   Time for reflection and study, including work/life balance

   •   Consciousness of gender issues, locally and globally

   •   Mentorship

“It has helped me see the importance of working with others, listening to each other, the importance of being part of a team, the importance of listening more rather than speaking more.  I have met a lot of people and have been inspired. This fellowship has helped me a lot.” (Fellow 8, female)

“If we work hard on them, and if we are able to change the mentality of the people, we can even improve the health care system and the medical education, even without a lot of resources.” (Fellow 7, female)

“I really hope we can see more change in the future. I’m also glad that one of the things that I learned from this fellowship is that even a little change or even a little contribution is good, instead of no change.” (Fellow 7, female)

“The women in academic leadership training was a very timely training for me. Because I was the head of department at that time but as you know we don’t have any basic skills, tools and equipment of leadership, except the will to serve. But the training in academic leadership came just a few months before I became a dean. So the training definitely opened my eyes. I met a lot of great people and attended very critical courses which helped me to become a better leader than I was before. Even if it was a short training, it was intense and purposeful. I am sure in the few years I have been a dean, most of the good things that I have done came from the tools that I have acquired from the training. And I am sure it will not stop there, whatever I do in the future the skills I got from the training will be very useful.”  (Fellow 5, female)

“I want myself to be a holistic person.” (Fellow 8, female)

“Another very important area for me personally is work life balance and I think it is also important for so many women as we have many responsibilities in our life. It is important to think about how the institution can be more flexible on this area. It is to some degree a policy issue and we need to work on it.” (Fellow 6, female)

“I think the most important part of the workshop is it showed me that it is okay to acknowledge there are gender issues and it is also right to face them.” (Fellow 5, female)

“Because you would think that people in that position in developed countries do not have that problem…  It doesn’t mean you are developed or underdeveloped, it just means you are a woman.” (Fellow 3, female)

“The most useful thing I found is seeing that there is a gender issue in any institution. In the legal, political and social environment we live in.  We usually feel like there is no gender issue but there is. And it would be a big lie to say there are no gender issues in Ethiopia, maybe it is better than some developing countries in Africa but we are never spared.” (Fellow 5, female)

“I have seen women who have had it all, women who have had their careers, their families, and leadership positions.  I’ve seen that it can be balanced.  It can be done.” (Fellow 7, female)

“In the area of leadership when I was exposed to such kind of training I was able to see that there are things like having a role model and being a role model as well as being mentored and mentoring others which will help us be the best of what we are.” (Fellow 6, female)

Suggestions for change to fellowship curriculum/structure

   •   Adaptation of curriculum to Ethiopian context

   •   Sustained follow-up

“Another thing I would change would be, if it is possible, to give this training in Ethiopia. We could reach more people, more female faculty.” (Fellow 7, female)

“I think the most important thing for the fellowship program is to make it contextualized. In our faculty we now have more young and diverse faculty both socially and academically so contextualizing and diversifying the course will be very much important.” (Fellow 5, female)

“Only having such training by itself may not be enough. The components like leadership, mentoring, career development, looking at the problems institutionally…these are big areas and [we need] to become more expert by further training… I suggest some [more] follow-up and support at the level of the institute or the country. We need to form a body having these issues at hand, sharing experience with one other country is not enough…the training is a good beginning but will not help the country as much [without additional follow-up].” (Fellow 6, female)

Gender equity activities undertaken since fellowship completion

   •   Sessions for female students and residents

   •   Mentoring

   •   Research

   •   Institutional policy and advocacy

   •   National organization

“We are involved in one of the studies that we conducted and meetings that we had also for gender equity. That was really good because a lot of people came from each department. There was a really good talk with different topics about gender equity, and then the paper – the preliminary data was presented, and people were giving very positive feedback.” (Fellow 3, female)

“There are many things that influence you, so in addition to this I have a friend who works in gender, who is outside of this university. So she usually invites me to meetings associated with gender, and then we are involved now in the association of women scientists.” (Fellow 3, female)

Int J Med Educ. 2017; 8:314-323; doi: 10.5116/ijme.5985.f644