EXCLUSIVE: The voices of women in pharmacy must be heard ‘louder and clearer’ and at the highest levels of the profession, MP for Coventry North West Taiwo Owatemi has urged.

Registered pharmacist and health whip for the Labour Party Government, Ms Owatemi gave a speech on the weekend at an event to mark International Women’s Day and 120 years of the National Association of Women Pharmacists (NAWP), which is now a network within the Pharmacists' Defence Association (PDA).

She told attendees that while the pharmacy profession is made up mostly of women, its leadership was ‘mostly male dominated’ and that more women were needed at the top to help address inequalities.

'Women need a seat at the table in pharmacy'

Ms Owatemi said she wanted to help ‘push women to get a seat on the table’ and ensure their voices were heard.

She suggested that gender inequality still persisted within pharmacy.

‘While the pharmacy profession is made mostly of women, the leadership is pretty much mostly male dominated,’ she said.

‘I think also as our profession has become more modern over the years, I would say that that's often impacted the traditional benefits that women in pharmacy experienced.

‘I know that there's still many pharmacists who work in zero-hour contracts which sometimes means that they are not given the necessary financial security.

‘And what I think is worse is that in 2021, 85% of pharmacists said that they, or someone they work with, have experienced abuse at work, and 44% of that was physical or violent abuse.

‘Now we know that as women, and especially as a woman of colour, we are more likely to be subjected to abuse at work.

‘These are all issues that need serious consideration, and women need to be able to have a seat on the table to discuss how we're actually going to address this.’

'Build a support network to help you make the most of opportunities'

Pharmacists were encouraged to build a network ‘that can help you throughout your career’.

‘The one thing I found in Parliament as a black female MP is that it's really important to build relationships with people who not only have the same shared values as you, but with people who have same shared experiences, and people who are able to validate your experiences,’ Ms Owatemi told pharmacists at the event.

‘You also need to be able to not be scared about using your network to develop your growth and to make the most of the opportunities that are out there.

‘It's also okay to still be figuring it out. There's nothing wrong with figuring it out as you go.’

‘So together, as we break barriers and as we push women to get a seat on the table, I want us to inspire change and ensure that the voices of women in pharmacy can be heard louder and clearer,' Ms Owatemi added.

‘The same motivation that made me choose pharmacy has taken me to Parliament’

Ms Owatemi also used her speech at the event to reflect on her journey from childhood, to university, to pharmacy to Parliament.

She said: ‘It is the same motivation that made me choose to be part of the profession that has taken me to Parliament.’

Ms Owatemi recalled her first day as a pharmacy student at Medway School of Pharmacy, when the then Conservative minister for primary care spoke to the students.

‘This was the first time that I'd actually seen a pharmacist do something else apart from our traditional roots. And he made me realise that our profession was very diverse, and we can go into policy and into politics,’ Ms Owatemi said.

‘His words really allowed me to realise the ability the pharmacists can play in making an immediate change to the environment around us,’ she added.

After graduating, Ms Owatemi spent a brief stint working as an industry pharmacist, then chose to train as an oncology pharmacist.

‘During my training year, I became aware of health disparities in the country. I became really frustrated by issues that I felt like were fixable and there wasn't a logical reason to me as to why those issues actually existed,’ Ms Owatemi told pharmacists present at the event.

‘I had become really frustrated with the fact that so many people around me were struggling, and seeing so many people in the country struggle.’

Because of that, she joined the Fabian Society, which she described as Labour's policy development think tank.

‘Joining the Labour Party made me see politics quite differently. It humanised politicians for the first time, and it made me realise that the world of policymaking was more accessible than I thought it was,' she said.

Ms Owatemi became more active in the party and was nominated to stand in the Coventry North West elections, which she won in 2019.

‘I became an MP at the ripe old age of 27 – being a pharmacist gave me skills I needed’

Ms Owatemi told event attendees how her career as a pharmacist had helped prepare her for Parliament.

‘I became an MP at the ripe old age of 27… I remember waking up that morning thinking, "am I equipped to do this? Do I have the skills? Do I have the experience to manage this?"’ she said.

‘But actually, being a pharmacist had prepared me for what it was going to be like as a politician… the skills that we have as pharmacists are so transferable.

‘The profession teaches us how to multitask, how to be analytical, how to be problem solvers, and honestly, if you can solve a supply chain problem for a patient, you can pretty much do anything, right?

‘As pharmacists, we have the ability to communicate, to build relationships with a different range of stakeholders.

‘The profession is equipped with the skills to be able to hear what people are saying and fundamentally, to hear what people are not saying in a conversation.

‘[Pharmacists] have had to learn how to be approachable, and sadly, we've also learned how to take a lot of flack too from different people.’

'Security guards turned their guns on me - they weren't used to seeing an MP who looked like me'

But becoming an MP also required ‘a lot of lifestyle adjustments’, including ‘the biggest shock’ of experiencing casual racism within Parliament, Ms Owatemi said.

‘It was often in the forms of microaggressions, unconscious bias, and I think it was quite difficult for me, because I'm used to working in pharmacy, I'm used to work in a profession that is very diverse.

Ms Owatemi said that as a pharmacist, she generally felt that she was judged for her knowledge and merit, but as an MP, she 'was being judged by perception and subjective criteria.’

Ms Owatemi shared an example of running through Parliament to a meeting because she was late.

‘In Parliament, we have security guards with actual guns, and because I was running, they just directed the guns at me. I remember stopping, thinking, “oh, what have I done?”

‘It became quickly clear to me that they were used to MPs running. They just weren’t used to having a diverse range of MPs.’

And she suggested the guards may have mistaken her for somebody who was a threat.

‘It shows that in Parliament, there's a lot of work we have to do in terms of changing that mindset and allowing people that work within the house, but also fellow MPs, to understand the diversity of the country and the fact that we're all going to come from different backgrounds,’ Ms Owatemi added.

‘There's a lot of work to be done, and feeling that obviously was a little reminder of one the reasons I chose to become an MP.’