The evolution of women as physicians and surgeons

Women have played an active role as physicians and surgeons from earliest history. In the United States, medical education for women began in 1847 and flourished as medical schools proliferated to meet the growing population demand. The Flexner Report in 1910 resulted in about half the medical schools in the U.S. closing; many of them had admitted women. The number of women medical students increased beginning in the 1970s, until now, 43% of medical school graduates are women. The number of women residents has increased concomitantly from 22% in 1980 to 36% in 1997. Women residents in surgical training programs lag behind. Thoracic surgery has the lowest percent of women residents, at 5%. Unless an attempt is made to actively recruit women, thoracic surgery training programs are in danger of drawing from an increasingly smaller portion of medical school graduates.