Women in Medicine
Women in U.S. Medicine
Educational Achievement
- In the U.S., women were 48.2% of all first year medical school students in 2009-2010.1
Women as a Percent of U.S. Medical School Graduates2
Women Physicians
- In 2010, 32.3% of all physicians and surgeons were women.3
- In 2010, women were 72.5% of all medical and health services managers..4
- In 2009, there were 10 specialties with more than 5,000 female physicians (listed in descending order):
- Internal Medicine5
- Pediatrics6
- Family Medicine7
- Obstetrics/Gynecology8
- Psychiatry9
- Anesthesiology10
- Emergency Medicine11
- Pathology12
- General Surgery13
- Diagnostic Radiology14
Women in Academic Medicine in the United States
- In 2009-2010, of 129,929 medical school faculty, women were 36.0% of medical faculty members.15
Women and Men by Medical Faculty Position16
- In 2009, women were:
- 36% of promotions to associate professor positions, 17
- and 28% of promotions to full professor. 18
- Nancy Edwards was named the Dean of Duke’s Medical School in 2007, making her the first woman to lead any of the top 10 medical schools in the US.19
Women of Color in Medicine
- In 2009 of women whose race/ethnicity was known, 28.6% of women physicians were women of color.20
Women in Canadian Medicine
- Women are 35.6% of all physicians.21
- In 2010, women received 58.4% of all MD degrees earned.22
- These numbers have been mostly rising since 1940, when women were just 4.1% of all MD degree recipients. 23
- 1996 was the first year more women received MD degrees than men, with women receiving one more degree than men. 24
Women in Medicine Worldwide
- In 2010, women were 50.6% of all health professionals and 48.6% of all medical practitioners in the U.K..25
- In 2010, 43.7% of physicians in Norway were women.26
Women Nobel Prize Winners
- Since 1901, only ten women have won the Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine:
- Gerty Radnitz Cori (1947)27
- Rosalyn Sussman Yalow (1977) 28
- Barbara McClintock (1983) 29
- Rita Levi-Montalcini (1986) 30
- Gertrude Elion (1988) 31
- Christiane Nusslein-Volhard (1995) 32
- Linda B. Buck (2004) 33
- Francoise Barre-Sinoussi (2008) 34
- Elizabeth H. Blackburn (2009) 35
- Carol W. Greider (2009) 36
SOURCES
1 Barbara Barzansky and Sylvia I. Etzel, "Medical Schools in the United States, 2009-2010," JAMA, vol. 304, no.11 (September 16, 2010).
2 Barbara Barzansky and Sylvia I. Etzel, "Medical Schools in the United States, 2009-2010," JAMA, vol. 304, no.11 (September 16, 2010).
3 Current Population Survey, Bureau of Labor Statistics, "Table 11: Employed Persons by Detailed Occupation, Sex, Race, and Hispanic or Latino Ethnicity," Annual Averages 2010 (2011).
4 Current Population Survey, Bureau of Labor Statistics, "Table 11: Employed Persons by Detailed Occupation, Sex, Race, and Hispanic or Latino Ethnicity," Annual Averages 2010 (2011).
5 Derek R. Smart, Physician Characteristics and Distribution in the U.S. 2011, American Medical Association (2011).
6 Derek R. Smart, Physician Characteristics and Distribution in the U.S. 2011, American Medical Association (2011).
7 Derek R. Smart, Physician Characteristics and Distribution in the U.S. 2011, American Medical Association (2011).
8 Derek R. Smart, Physician Characteristics and Distribution in the U.S. 2011, American Medical Association (2011).
9 Derek R. Smart, Physician Characteristics and Distribution in the U.S. 2011, American Medical Association (2011).
10 Derek R. Smart, Physician Characteristics and Distribution in the U.S. 2011, American Medical Association (2011).
11 Derek R. Smart, Physician Characteristics and Distribution in the U.S. 2011, American Medical Association (2011).
12 Derek R. Smart, Physician Characteristics and Distribution in the U.S. 2011, American Medical Association (2011).
13 Derek R. Smart, Physician Characteristics and Distribution in the U.S. 2011, American Medical Association (2011).
14 Derek R. Smart, Physician Characteristics and Distribution in the U.S. 2011, American Medical Association (2011).
15 Jennifer Leadley and Rae Anne Sloan, Women in U.S. Academic Medicine:Statistics and Benchmarking Report 2009-2010, Association of American Medical Colleges (2011).
16 Jennifer Leadley and Rae Anne Sloan, Women in U.S. Academic Medicine:Statistics and Benchmarking Report 2009-2010, Association of American Medical Colleges (2011).
17 Jennifer Leadley and Rae Anne Sloan, Women in U.S. Academic Medicine:Statistics and Benchmarking Report 2009-2010, Association of American Medical Colleges (2011).
18 Jennifer Leadley and Rae Anne Sloan, Women in U.S. Academic Medicine:Statistics and Benchmarking Report 2009-2010, Association of American Medical Colleges (2011).
19 Rebecca Wu, "Harvard Doctor Named Med Dean," The Chronicle of Higher Education (August 28, 2007).
20 Derek R. Smart, "Table 1.22: Female Physicians by Race/Ethnicity," Physician Characteristics and Distribution in the U.S., 2011, American Medical Association (2011).
21 Canadian Medical Association, "Percent Distribution of Physicians by Age, Sex and Province/Territory, Canada 2010" (January 2010).
22 The Association of Faculties of Medicine in Canada, Canadian Medical Education Statistics 2010.
23 The Association of Faculties of Medicine in Canada, Canadian Medical Education Statistics 2010.
24 The Association of Faculties of Medicine in Canada, Canadian Medical Education Statistics 2010.
25 National Statistics, "Labour Force Survey: Employment Status by Occupation and Sex," April-June 2010 (2010).
26 Anders Taraldset, Norwegian Medical Asscocation, "Statistics and Research on Physicians in Norway in English" (2010).
27 Nobel Prize Internet Archive, "Female Nobel Prize Winners" (2009).
28 Nobel Prize Internet Archive, "Female Nobel Prize Winners" (2009).
29 Nobel Prize Internet Archive, "Female Nobel Prize Winners" (2009).
30 Nobel Prize Internet Archive, "Female Nobel Prize Winners" (2009).
31 Nobel Prize Internet Archive, "Female Nobel Prize Winners" (2009).
32 Nobel Prize Internet Archive, "Female Nobel Prize Winners" (2009).
33 Nobel Prize Internet Archive, "Female Nobel Prize Winners" (2009).
34 Nobel Prize Internet Archive, "Female Nobel Prize Winners" (2009).
35 Nobel Prize Internet Archive, "Female Nobel Prize Winners" (2009).
36 Nobel Prize Internet Archive, "Female Nobel Prize Winners" (2009).
UPDATED August 15, 2011
