Gender Diversity Milestones in Medicine
The following article is written by two AMWA board members Dr. Julie L. Welch and Dr. Theresa M. Rohr-Kirchgraber. The full content of this article is published by Indiana University Reflections Diversity Issue which can be found here http://medicine.iu.edu/sig/
By Julie L. Welch, MD and Theresa M. Rohr-Kirchgraber, MDIUPUI Faculty
Dr. Welch serves the IUSOM community as an emergency medicine physician, clinical teaching faculty, and advocate for women in medicine. Dr. Rohr-Kirchgraber is the Executive Director for the IUSOM Center of Excellence in Women’s Health. This piece reflects on important gender diversity milestones marking the past two centuries for women in medicine. Although we have reached near gender equality as medical students in 2012, great disparities exist in faculty ranks and leadership positions in academic medicine.
Gender Diversity Milestones in Medicine
“If society will not admit of women’s free development, then society must be remodeled.” 1 It was 1849. Physicians were male and medicine lacked gender diversity or equality. It was 1849 when Elizabeth Blackwell shook the patriarchal foundation of medicine by earning her medical degree. Dr. Blackwell became the first female physician in the United States of America. After 29 rejections from medical schools, she persevered and was finally granted admission to Geneva Medical College in New York. Rumored to be a joke gone awry, the all-male student body shocked the all-male administration by endorsing her admission. When the door opened she boldly walked through to change history. 1,2
“We have to build things that we want to see accomplished, in life and in our country, based on our own personal experiences… to make sure others do not have to suffer the same discrimination.” 3 Now jump forward 100 years to the 1940’s. A young Hawaiian woman of Japanese descent dreamed of becoming a doctor. After her 20th rejection from medical schools that did not have to accept women, she changed her mission and envisioned changing the law. Patsy Mink earned her law degree from the University of Chicago, moved back to Hawaii, and in 1965 became the first Asian American Woman in U.S Congress. She impacted the lives of every woman of her generation onward by co-authoring the 1972 Title IX Amendment of the Higher Education Act which prohibits federally funded institutions of higher education from discriminating against women in admissions. 3,4 In 1972, when only 9.6% of medical students were women, the gates swung open. 5
Today, in 2012, as we proudly celebrate the 40th Anniversary of Title IX we must ask, “Would Elizabeth Blackwell and Patsy Mink applaud with us?” We boast the “pipeline is primed” with a steady in flow of women physicians in training, however,as one enter the halls of academic medicine, the cold mirror of history reflects past gender disparities. It is a milestone that admissions have reached near gender equality with 48% female medical students. 5 Yet after medical school, as female faculty climb the academic ladders of rank and leadership their numbers dramatically decline. While women make up 31% of associate professors they dwindle to only 18% of fullprofessors. 5 As for leadership, a mere 13% of department chairs and only 9% of deans’ positions are claimed by women. 5 Have we really “come along way, baby?” 6
In the halls of Washington, out of the 535 members of U.S. Congress in 2012, Dr. Nan Hayworth is the only female physician. “I appreciate the unique opportunity I have to protect and promote women’s health.” 7 Can you hear her voice echo alone in the congressional chambers?
If we accept that the pipeline is primed then is it “a glass ceiling or a sticky floor?” 8 For most, it is a symbiosis of both. Fortitude, perseverance, and courage; these are the character 12 qualities we as women in medicinemust embrace to melt the barriers, shatter the glass ceilings, and climb beyond the statistics that bind us.We must embrace our strengths aswomen, our knowledge of medicine, our wisdom from experience, and our compassion as caregivers and healers. To teach, to mentor, and to advocate for our students and each other is the means by which we shall reach our ultimate potential.
1. www.nwhm.org/education-resources/history/quotes. Accessed July 11, 2012.
2. http://www.lilburnes.org/Students/Scientists/4thA/blackwell_julie.htm.Accessed July 11, 2012.
3. www.now.org/history/patsymink.html. Accessed July 11, 2012.
4. Carnes, Molly. What Would Patsy Mink Think? A Piece of My Mind. JAMA, Feb8, 2012, vol 307, no 6. 571-2.
5. Association of American MedicalColleges (AAMC) Women in US Academic Medicine and Science: Statistics and Benchmarking Report 2009-2010.
6. www.pinterest.com/tpmk.we.ve.come.a.long.way.baby/. Accessed July 11, 2012.
http://hayworth.house.gov/biography/.Accessed July 11, 2012.
