Charlotte Maxeke Academic Hospital’s CEO Gladys Bogoshi reflects on her 17-year career
CEO of Charlotte Maxeke Academic Hospital, Gladys Bogoshi said Women's Day is about women who stood up and made a change.
Charlotte Maxeke Academic Hospital’s CEO, Gladys Bogoshi views Women’s Day as a reflective time to see how far she has come in her life and career.
Bogoshi has been in her leadership position since 2006 and began her journey as acting CEO at Helen Joseph Hospital. She was appointed at Charlotte Maxeke in 2013 and has remained in that position for the past 10 years.
The CEO said she had faced a few challenges in her leadership role as a black woman.
“After 1994, we [women and men] are supposed to be seen as equals even though some are still seen as more equal than others. In our profession, the tendency was to promote male figures because they were seen as experienced people. Stepping into such leadership roles as a woman, there is already prejudice against you because you must constantly prove yourself and your expertise.”
Bogoshi recalled an experience she endured as an acting CEO, where she had a white personal assistant and people who wanted to address her directly with grievances, were shocked to find out that she was a black woman in a leadership role.
“I am of the view that we should not dwell on the old challenges that still exist, we must move on. We are 30 years into democracy and must look at ‘new’ challenges because the equity and race challenge has challenges that the government has tried to rectify through employment equity and other forms.”
She added that during this Women’s Month, she tasked herself by asking, ‘Are we going to have good leaders who can stand the test of time, grow in the system, feel its hardships and prioritise others, especially in the health sector?’
“I look at countries that had women presidents, and those countries are countries that have never declared war on any country. Another question I continue to ask myself is, ‘If I am a woman in a leadership role, how can I change the political or the administrative landscape to make the world a safe place’?”
She added she understood that leading an academic hospital sometimes came with bad publicity ‘but there was a major difference between things going wrong and bad publicity’.
“An example in health terms – If I planned to deliver a baby and the mother dies due to a seizure, it is an unfortunate situation that was not planned. It is how such situations are reported that worries me, many times media houses put catchy headlines that have no context. “
Bogoshi noted that bad publicity was detrimental to the hospital’s good name and was of the view that media should change the way they report and give more context to its stories so that the readers could make up their minds about what was being written.
“August 9 is about women who stood up and made a change, we should be asking ourselves if these women would be proud of the change and strides they made. This day is important because we need to reflect on the changes we have made in different spheres of our lives and society.”
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