Descriptive Statistics
Ninety-five women participated in the mission and all were eligible for the study. Seventy (74%) were medical volunteers (physicians, nurses, and other medical professionals) and twenty-five (26%) were non-medical volunteers (administrators, translators, or students). Volunteers came from 23 different countries and 68% (n=65) were from LMICs (Figure 1).
Pre-mission, post-mission, and both surveys were completed by 85% (n=81), 81% (n=77), and 74% (n=70) of volunteers, respectively. Volunteers had an average of 8.1 ± 7.3 years’ experience working with Operation Smile. The majority of participants had been on 11-15 prior missions with the organization. Twenty-nine percent of volunteers had prior experience as a team leader and 28% as an educator for Operation Smile. Volunteers from HICs and LMICs had similar mission roles (p=0.58), number of prior missions (p=0.47), duration of volunteerism (p=0.69), team leader experience (p=0.28) and educator experience (p=0.18) (Table 1).
Female representation in home environments
In their home countries, nurses tended to work in female dominated workplaces whereas physicians tended to work in male-dominated environments (Figure 2). Volunteers from Europe and Latin America worked with more women professionally versus sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East and North Africa, and North America. Only 3 volunteers originated from East Asia and the Pacific (Figure 3A). Volunteers from LMICs and HICs had similar estimates for prevalence of female healthcare workers at home (p=0.66) (Figure 3B).
Mentorship
Most women had mentored or received mentorship from other woman before (Table 2). 73% (n=59) had previously received mentorship from a colleague, most of whom were women (90%, n=53). Similarly, 75% of women (n=61) had previously mentored a colleague; most of their mentees were female (93%, n=57). Nearly all volunteers wanted to be mentors for others, especially for women (97% and 97%, respectively). (Figure 4) However, women from both HICs and LMICs struggle to get enough mentorship. 98% of volunteers (n=79) felt their mentorship was insufficient and 95% (n=77) preferred a female mentor. Volunteer role (doctor, nurse, other medical, non-medical) was not associated with receiving (p=0.129) or giving (p=0.118) mentorship.
Table 2. Prior experience with female mentorship
|
HIC (n=22)
|
LMIC (n=56)
|
Overall (N=81)
|
P-value
|
Had experience working in an all- female professional environment
|
8 (36%)
|
18 (32%)
|
26 (32%)
|
0.91
|
Received mentorship from a colleague
|
17 (77%)
|
39 (70%)
|
59 (73%)
|
0.97
|
Received mentorship from a female colleague
|
16 (73%)
|
34 (61%)
|
53 (65%)
|
0.73
|
Mentored a colleague
|
17 (77%)
|
41 (73%)
|
61 (75%)
|
0.64
|
Mentored a female colleague
|
15 (68%)
|
39 (70%)
|
57 (70%)
|
0.90
|
Living in a HIC versus LMIC did not influence prior experience receiving mentorship (77% vs 70%, p=0.97) or being mentored by a woman (73% vs 61%, p=0.73). Similarly, giving mentorship to a colleague (77% vs 73%, p=0.64) or female colleague (68% vs 70%, p=0.90) was equivalent in HICs and LMICs.
At this mission, many women gave and received mentorship for the first time. 68% (n=52) mentored others; 42% (n=5 of 12) who had never mentored before became mentors for the first time. 77% (n=59) of volunteers received mentorship.15 participants had never been mentored before, and 11 of them (73%) received mentorship for the first time. Mentorship during the mission had a trickle-down effect for participant home countries. 100% established professional contacts to maintain in the future and 100% felt empowered to mentor working women at home (Figure 5).
Experience in prior all-female environments
Twenty-six women (32%) had prior experience working in an all-female professional environment. Prior work in an all-female environment was not associated the with volunteer’s profession (p=0.807), self-reported gender equity at home (p=0.529), or prior mentorship experience (giving p=0.930; receiving p=1.00).
Leadership development
Participants anticipated being empowered by the all-female mission experience with 98% expecting empowerment before and 99% reporting empowerment afterwards (p=0.196). Volunteers did not expect to enjoy the mission as much as they did, with 75% expecting to enjoy the experience before versus 87% reporting they enjoyed the experience after (p=0.040).
Only 16% (n=12) of participants were team leaders. Nevertheless 99% (n=76) felt inspired to pursue leadership positions in their home countries and 93% (n=72) within Operation Smile. 99% (n=76) of participants felt motivated to advance professionally in their career and 97% (n=75) wanted to work with other women in their career.