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Women in Medicine

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Published: March 2009

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Women in U.S. Medicine
EDUCATIONAL ACHIEVEMENT
  • In the U.S., women were 48.7% of all first year medical school students in 2007-2008. 1

WOMEN PHYSICIANS
  • In 2006, 27.8% of physicians were women.2
  • The total number of women physicians has increased 472.1% between 1980 to 2006, from 54,284 to 256,257.2
  • In 2006, there were 7 specialties with more than 5,000 female physicians (listed in descending order):
    • Internal medicine2
    • Pediatrics2
    • General Practice2
    • Psychiatry2
    • Obstetrics/Gynecology2
    • Anesthesiology2
    • Pathology2
  • In 2008, women were 69.4% of all medical and health services managers.3

WOMEN SURGEONS

  • In 2006, women were 30.7% of all general surgeons.2
WOMEN IN ACADEMIC MEDICINE
  • In 2007-2008 women were 34.0% of medical faculty members. Women make up 17.0% of full professors, 29.0% of associate professors, and 40.0% of assistant professors.4
  • In 2007, women were 25% of promotions to associate professor positions, and 29% of promotions to full professor.4
  • In 2007-2008, women represented 12% of department chairs. Only 11% of U.S. medical school deans were women.4
  • 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.5
WOMEN OF COLOR IN MEDICINE
  • In 2006, of women whose race/ethnicity was known, 29.6% of women physicians were women of color.2
  • In 2006, of physicians whose race/ethnicity was known, 14.8% of all physicians were women of color. 2
Women in Canadian Medicine
  • Women are 34.0% of all physicians and 20.0% of all surgical specialists. In addition, women are currently 0% of all medical scientists.6
  • In 2007, women received 58.5% of all MD degrees earned. These numbers have been mostly rising since 1940, when women were just 4.1% of all MD degree recipients. 1997 was the first year more women received MD degrees than men, with women being 50.3% of all MD recipients.7
Women in Medicine Worldwide
  • In 2003, women were more than half of all medical students in New Zealand, but comprised only 34.5% of the doctors.8
  • In 2006, women were 46.3% of doctors in the U.K.9
  • In 2008, 41.3% of physicians in Norway were women.10
WOMEN NOBEL PRIZE WINNERS

Since 1901, only eight women have won the Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine:

  • Gerty Radnitz Cori (1947) 11
  • Rosalyn Sussman Yalow (1977) 11
  • Barbara McClintock (1983) 11
  • Rita Levi-Montalcini (1986) 11
  • Gertrude Elion (1988) 11
  • Christiane Nusslein-Volhard (1995) 11
  • Linda B. Buck (2004) 11
  • Francoise Barre-Sinoussi (2008)11
Sources

1 Barbara Barzansky, Sylvia I. Etzel, "Medical Schools in the United States, 2007-2008," JAMA, vol. 300, no. 10 (September 10, 2008): p. 1221-1227, 1652.

2 Derek R. Smart, Physician Characteristics and Distribution in the US, 2008 ed. (United States: American Medical Association, 2008).

3 Current Population Survey, Bureau of Labor Statistics, "Table 11: Employed persons by Detailed Occupation, Sex, Race, and Hispanic or Latino Ethnicity," Annual Averages 2008 (2009).

4 AAMC, "Women in U.S. Academic Medicine: Statistics and Medical School Benchmarking 2007-2008" (2008).

5 Rebecca Wu, "Harvard Doctor Named Med Dean," The Chronicle of Higher Education (August 28, 2007).

6 Canada Medical Association, "Number and percent distribution of physicians by specialty and sex, Canada 2009" (2009).

7  Association of Faculties of Medicine of Canada, Canadian Medical Education Statistics, vol. 29 (2007).

8 The Ministry of Health, "Doctors in New Zealand" (2005).

9 National Statistics, "Labour Force Survey: Employment Status by Occupation and Sex," April-June 2006 (2006).

10 Anders Taraldset, Norwegian Medical Asscocation, "Statistics and Research on physicians in Norway in English" (September 10, 2007).

11 Nobel Prize Internet Archive, "Female Nobel Prize Winners" (2009).

UPDATED March 4, 2009

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