Women Physicians and the Cultures of Medicine

“In their original form, the essays composing this volume were presented at a symposium called ‘Women Physicians, Women's Politics, Women's Health: Emerging Narratives,’ hosted by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) in 2005” (p vii). These words begin Women Physicians and the Cultures of Medicine, edited by Moore, Fee, and Parry. It is their hope that the book, which concentrates on the period spanning the 19th century to the present, will contribute to the ever-increasing body of literature on the history of women physicians. The book would certainly be helpful for medical historians, of course, but also for any person—woman or man—interested in the past, present, and future role of women in medicine. Readers are rewarded with impressive scholarship and exhaustive, essay-specific bibliographies.

The book has 3 parts: one on selected women physicians, a second on how women challenged the prevalent medical culture of their times, and a third on women functioning in various cultures. Like many collections of symposium presentations, this work displays some unevenness from one section to another and even from one essay to another within the same section. No essay is weak or poorly written, but some are clearly more accessible to the reader. Furthermore, even though the women presented in various essays are certainly compelling figures, it is not always clear why the 5 women physicians chosen for the first section were highlighted rather than other, equally worthy, women physicians.

The second section is exceptionally strong, largely owing to the first essay by Nye, “The Legacy of Masculine Codes of Honor and the Admission of Women to the Medical Profession in the Nineteenth Century” and the final essay by Rogers, “Feminism Fights the Culture of Exclusion in Medical Education, 1970-1990.” Nye convincingly conveys the utter discrimination against women that the medical profession of the 19th century considered normal. Rogers accurately portrays some of the incidents that women medical students have experienced in current times. In fact, this essay reminded me of 2 episodes in my own medical career. During my interview for medical school in 1972, a physician asked me how I could be a woman and a physician at the same time. I always thought that I was one of a few women asked such a question, but Rogers' essay proved that I was far from being in a minority with regard to such sexist questions. The second episode was prompted by the essay's reminder that in the 1970s, some professors made sexist (and stupid) comments before classes comprising men as well as women. In 1974, one of my physiology professors assured my class that a menstruating uterus was “crying tears of blood for a baby.” This was during a scientific physiology lecture, not a poetry reading or a lecture on imaginative metaphors for bodily functions. Although Rogers' essay describes male medical students joining in the harassment of women students, in my experience this was not the case.

The third section is likewise especially strong but is thematically mixed, with essays on women medical missionaries, women in homeopathy or other “sectarian” areas of medicine, and the role of women physicians in college and university student health services. Each of these essays is captivating. Yet my favorite was the final essay in this section, in which the editors, along with Erica Frank, report on the physical and emotional health, professional satisfaction and practices, and preventive measures practiced and recommended by women physicians today. There is much about which to cheer, but there is still much work to be done in terms of equity for women in medicine—specifically, increasing the number of women physicians in higher- or greater-profile positions (eg, deans, department chairs) for which they are qualified. Reading Women Physicians and the Cultures of Medicine will help women and men not only realize just how far women physicians have come since the 19th century but will also demonstrate that the journey of women in medical practice, policy, and education is still evolving in the 21st.