The Rediscovery of the Need for a Feminist Medical Education

Abstract

For well over a century, women have sought acceptance in the medical profession. The first breakthrough in this effort, in the late nineteenth century, resulted in a "golden age": women then accounted for up to half of some medical school graduating classes. These early successes were not followed by subsequent gains. The twentieth century became a period of stagnation for women physicians with respect to both their number and their power. Against the background of this earlier history, this article analyzes contemporary efforts to empower women as physicians.