A group of Hollywood stars made headlines in early 2018 when they banded together to create Time's Up, an organization dedicated to fighting sexual harassment and inequality in the workplace.
Over the last year, Time's Up has dedicated more than $6 million from its $25 million fund to 100 legal cases and investigations. The movement has also expanded to other industries, including journalism and advertising. And last month, with a Minnesota medical giant leading the way, Time's Up reached the healthcare industry.
Mayo Clinic is one of eight founding signatories of Time's Up Healthcare, an affiliate dedicated to creating safe, fair and dignified working conditions for women and non-binary workers in the medical industry. Other organizations participating in the movement include the University of Wisconsin-Madison, UW Health and Yale School of Medicine.
The group is made up of a diverse group of health professionals, including doctors, nurses, physicians assistants, physical therapists and clinical pharmacists.
"Mayo Clinic's participation highlights commitments Mayo is already working toward," Mayo CEO Gianrico Farrugia said in a release announcing the organization's launch.
These commitments include fighting sexual harassment and gender inequality in the healthcare industry and ensuring fair pay for all. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, Mayo has committed to buffing up the way it processes and reports complaints of bullying and harassment.
"The healthcare industry is not immune to these issues, and has its own specific set of vulnerabilities," Dr. Sharonne Hayes, a Time's Up Healthcare co-founder, told Minne Inno. "If you're a woman in healthcare and you're being harassed at work, it's impossible to provide the best possible care for your patients."
Hayes, a cardiologist and founder of Mayo Clinic's Women's Heart Clinic, has worked in the medical field for more than 35 years. And for nearly just as long, she's been advocating for equality and inclusion in the workplace. Hayes has served as Mayo's Director of Diversity and Inclusion since 2010. She said her passion for inclusion comes from working in a field of medicine that is made up of just 20 percent women.
"During my participation as a Time's Up founder, I heard stories outside of Mayo from individuals who were working toward PhDs and M.D.s but left the field after a terrible experience," Hayes said. "We can't afford that kind of brain drain."
Though almost every profession is affected by inequality, healthcare comes with its own specific set of challenges. The field is filled with hierarchy and power differentials, Hayes explained, and anytime those exist, it creates the possibility for a vulnerable or exploitable relationship.
"Medicine is a high-power, high-burnout profession. People in that situation don't always make the best decisions," Hayes said.
Of the more than 4,000 cases sent to the Time's Up legal defense fund, the second highest number of claims came from people in the healthcare industry.
Hayes believes that healthcare professionals can contribute to the greater Time's Up movement through data collection and research. Out of all the professions involved in the initiative, those in healthcare are most used to doing research, she said. By documenting instances of harassment and how they are handled, Time's Up Healthcare hopes to raise the national conversation of how best to deal with these issues and share best practices with organizations across the country.
Hayes added that her colleagues initially met Mayo's involvement in Time's Up with some trepidation. As one of the country's largest healthcare providers, Mayo doesn't always take stands on movements like Time's Up, she said, but that eventually changed. Mayo's new CEO was eager to get involved.
"Talking to other Time's Up founders, I felt fortunate that Mayo has been so proactive," Hayes said. "There's a lot of mutual respect and teamwork. But just because we've been a little bit better doesn't mean we can rest on our laurels. There's still a lot of work to be done."
