Introduction

The renowned gynecologist, Dr Charles Meigs, addressed his all-male gynecology class at the Jefferson Medical College in 1847 on the "Distinctive Characteristics of the Female." He stated, in part: The great administrative faculties are not hers. She plans no sublime campaign, leads no armies to battle, nor fleets to victory. The Forum is no theatre for her silver voice. . . . She discerns not the courses of the planets. . . . She composes no Iliad, no Aeneid. The strength of Milton's poetic vision was far beyond her fine and delicate perceptions. . . . Do you think that a Woman . . . could have developed, in the tender soil of her intellect, the strong idea of a Hamlet, or a MacBeth? Such is not woman's province, nature, power, or mission. She reigns in the heart; her seat and throne are by the hearthstone. The household altar is her place of worship and service. . . . She has a head almost too small for intellect and just big enough for love.¹ In that same year, Elizabeth Blackwell was the first woman admitted to a US medical school. The number of women physicians has increased significantly since then and some of these women who have made extraordinary contributions, against odds, deserve special recognition. In the last decade there has been an almost threefold increase in women entering medicine. In 1959-1960, 6.9% of the medical school applicants, 6% of the entering class, and 5.7% of the graduates were women. In 1980-1981, 29.5% of the applicants, 28.9% of the entering class, and 24.5% of the graduates were women.