American women physicians in 2000: a history in progress

This article surveys major trends in the history of women physicians in American medicine during the 20th century, noting especially factors that have elicited renewed and increasingly public attention during the past two decades. These include the challenges of achieving greater professional visibility while also balancing family and career, of sustaining women physicians' legacy of commitment to women's health and primary care medicine without reinforcing the traditional stereotype that these are the specialties "best suited" to women doctors, and of addressing the need for more ethnic and racial diversity in the medical profession. Other recent developments include the leveling off of the number of women entering medical school and the increasing tendency of both men and women physicians to practice as employees.