Women of Color and Intersectionality Initiative: A Workgroup Report on the Continued Need to Support and Retain Women of Color

Background: Unprecedented stressors have significantly impacted our nation. These occurrences compounded the prepandemic structural factors that disproportionately affect historically, economically, and socially marginalized communities of color and women as highlighted by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. In response, health care organizations and regulatory bodies have shifted from the quadruple aim to the quintuple aim to conceptualize health care improvement by adding to the prioritizing of the health workforce’s well-being and advancing health equity (Nundy, Cooper, & Mate, 2022). The literature presents limited and conflicting information regarding workforce well-being based on demographic background. A 2021 report by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine described the potential for race, ethnicity, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, and disability status to alter or amplify the career impacts of COVID-19 (National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, 2021). Methods: In 2020, the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) convened a Women of Color and Intersectionality Initiative (“Initiative”) to understand better and address factors contributing to the well-being challenges encountered in health systems by women of color (WOC). Results: Based on a rigorous review of existing data and national trends, the group concluded that WOC continue to exist and work at the margins and that the threat of “not belonging” is a key factor impacting their well-being. The authors, who are members of this AAMC WOC Intersectionality Initiative, identified key strategies in the domains of intersectionality and equity, work-life boundaries, gendered divisions of labor, and mental health and well-being for implementation and evaluation in future studies. Conclusion: Over the last 4 years, the health and scientific workforces have encountered staffing shortages, increased attrition rates, and an overall decline of wellness. Authors and thought leaders in this space have postulated the need to refine tools and methodologies to capture intersectional differences to inform strategy. This article presents recommendations from the Initiative that include solutions that prioritize intersectionality, which can be adopted by academic health systems to support the well-being of WOC.