In recent years, medicine has become more open about burnout, workforce shortages, and the challenges facing women in health care leadership. We write about mentorship programs, leadership pipelines, and the need to bring more women into ownership and executive roles. We celebrate women who build clinics, lead departments, and create space for others to rise.
What we talk about far less is what happens when women actually meet each other in positions of power.
I came into aesthetic medicine during a period when female ownership and leadership were being widely praised as signs of progress. I learned under a woman who had built something formidable, a business, a reputation, a presence in her community. I admired what she had created, and I believed, perhaps naively, that success among women in medicine was not a zero-sum game.
Life, as it often does, complicated that belief.
A family medical crisis forced me to rethink where and how I could work. The practical realities of caregiving, commuting, and sustaining a household made proximity and flexibility more than preferences; they became necessities. Like many clinicians, I began exploring how to continue practicing closer to home, in a way that would allow me to remain present both professionally and personally.
That is when I encountered the less-discussed side of professional “competition” in medicine.
Fairness in a care-based profession
Across health care, noncompete agreements and restrictive contracts are increasingly part of the conversation. National news outlets and professional blogs have covered debates about whether these clauses protect businesses or limit workforce mobility and free markets. Some states have moved to restrict them. Federal agencies have proposed rules to curb their use. The underlying question is not just legal; it is cultural: What does fairness look like in a profession built on care?
Healthy competition can drive innovation, higher standards, and better patient experiences. But not all competition is healthy.
There is a difference between protecting what you have built and preventing someone else from building at all.
What often gets lost in these discussions is who is most affected. Women in medicine still carry a disproportionate share of caregiving responsibilities, for children, partners, and aging family members. They are more likely to seek work that fits into complex lives rather than lives that fit neatly into rigid professional structures. When professional mobility is constrained, it is not just a career that feels smaller. A life does.
After opening my own practice, I had the experience of hiring a nurse who stayed briefly before deciding to pursue her own path. I understood the uncertainty of standing at that threshold, the mix of fear, ambition, and hope that comes with trying to build something new. I chose to support her, because I remembered what it felt like to need space rather than resistance.
That moment clarified something for me: Power is not just about what we are allowed to enforce. It is about what we choose to encourage.
Defining power through support
Much has been written, in professional forums, local business reporting, and national health policy discussions, about the “pipeline problem” for women in medicine. How do we get more women into leadership? How do we get more women to own practices, lead departments, and shape the future of care?
The harder, quieter question is what happens after they get there.
Solidarity is easy to praise in theory. It is much harder to practice when interests overlap, markets tighten, or success feels scarce.
Noncompetes, contracts, and legal frameworks will always have a place in business. But medicine is not only a business. It is a profession that asks for trust, empathy, and moral leadership, not just from clinicians toward patients, but from leaders toward each other.
We can make room for excellence without exclusion. We can believe in standards without building walls. We can protect what we have built without forgetting what it took to build it in the first place.
Medicine has always made room for ambition, innovation, and progress. It should also make room for generosity, especially among those who understand how steep the climb can be. The future of women in medicine will not be measured only by…
Sarah White is a nurse practitioner, small business owner, and premedical student based in Virginia. With a background in clinical practice and caregiving, she brings a unique perspective to the intersection of medicine, family life, and community service. She volunteers with the Medical Reserve Corps and is preparing to apply to medical school in 2026.
Sarah is also the founder of two growing ventures: Wrinkle Relaxer, where she specializes in aesthetic treatments, and Bardot Boutique Aesthetics, a space for curated beauty and wellness services.
