Honoring women doctors, 170 years after medical school ‘joke … – Chicago Tribune

Elizabeth Blackwell, the first woman to earn a medical degree in the United States, was accepted to Geneva Medical College in 1847 as a joke.

"The faculty, assuming that the all-male student body would never agree to a woman joining their ranks, allowed them to vote on her admission," according to Blackwell's biography on the National Institutes of Health website. "As a joke, they voted 'yes,' and she gained admittance."

She graduated in 1849 and practiced medicine in New York into the late 1870s. She and her sister, Emily Blackwell, and a third doctor, Marie Zakrzewska, opened the New York Infirmary for Women and Children in 1857, which also provided training for female doctors.

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Friday is Blackwell's birthday (she would turn 196 this year), and a group of doctors has established Feb. 3 as National Women Physicians Day to celebrate the progress made since Blackwell's era and to call attention to the challenges still in place.

"We're celebrating the female physicians who pioneered to get us here and trying to raise awareness about the bias that still exists," said Hala Sabry, a California-based doctor who founded Physician Mom Group, the organization that brainstormed National Women Physicians Day.

Sabry, 38, is a mom of three kids under 4. She established Physician Mom Group to establish a sense of community in the midst of a grueling work schedule and find answers to such questions as, "How many nannies do I need?"

Sabry is an osteopathic emergency physician, and she said it's not unusual for patients to assume she's a nurse, even after she has introduced herself.

"I have 'doctor' on my badge and all over my scrubs, and I introduce myself saying, 'I'm Dr. Sabry. I'm going to be your doctor today," she said. "I answer all their questions, answer all the family's questions and tell them a diagnosis, and when I ask if they have any questions, they'll say, 'When is the doctor going to be here?'"

The bias isn't limited to patient interactions. A study published last year in JAMA Internal Medicine reported significant wage disparity between male and female physicians. After adjusting for age, experience, specialty and faculty rank, Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital researchers found the average pay gap between men and women was $19,878 a year. Before adjusting for those factors, the gap averaged $51,315 a year.

On the positive side, almost half of all medical students are women, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges. And it's safe to assume they're no longer being admitted as a practical joke.

Sabry hopes to build on that progress and chip further away at the outdated assumptions that women play second fiddle to men in medicine.

"It's important to maintain the progress, so every little girl who dreams of becoming a doctor won't hesitate because of her gender," she said.

A worthy goal, and a lovely birthday gift to Dr. Blackwell.

hstevens@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @heidistevens13