Gender equity in undergraduate medical education: a status report

This status report summarizes recent data on and studies of women's experiences as medical students. Women medical students in the United States now number over 29,000--44% of enrollees. Despite large increases in the numbers of women students, harassment and gender stereotyping continue to detract from their education and opportunities. Moreover, specialty choices have remained remarkably stable, with comparatively few women entering surgery and most subspecialties. Because equal opportunity has not yet been achieved, medical schools need to monitor the experiences of their trainees and to target interventions where problems still exist in order to ensure that progress toward gender equity continues.