Women and the Practice of Medicine: A New History (1950-2020)

by Lucille A. Lester

Overview

This text offers a new interpretation of the dramatic changes that occurred in women in medicine over the course of the last seventy years, starting from the 1950s when women physicians were a curiosity to the present day when their presence is accepted and their achievements are broadly acknowledged. In seven chapters arranged by decades, this book examines the seminal events that shaped what has been described as “the changing face of medicine.” Using the lived experiences of women physicians featured as vignettes throughout the narrative, the book traces the effects of the quota system for admissions, second wave feminism and Title IX legislation, the restrictions of the “glass ceiling,” and a cascade of “equity issues” in career advancement and salary to offer a new account of the roles women played in shaping the standards and the contributing to progress in the field of medicine. Women faced gender specific challenges to enter, train and practice medicine that did not abate as they strove to balance work and family. As the book shows, such challenges and the attendant institutional responses offered by medical schools and government rulings shaped how women “do” medicine differently. Women and the Practice of Medicine offers a unique interpretation of this history and accounts for the changes in social norms as well as in women’s perspectives that have made them an invaluable “new normal” in the contemporary world of medicine.

This book fills a gap in the more recent history of women in medicine, much of which is written by academic historians or sociologists; this book contributes a clinician’s “on the ground” point of view. It includes a researched, structured historical narrative spanning the last 70 years, but it seeks to frame this narrative with the personal stories and accomplishments of women physicians who lived through the time in question. The book also provides an overview of how much has changed in the practice of medicine as well as a reminder of what has not changed and what needs to further evolve for women to be equitable partners in medicine as well as other professional disciplines.

The book concludes with two appendices containing a questionnaire used in interviews of 40 women conducted at the start of the book project, and a summary of the qualitative findings from the semi-structured interviews.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9783030741396
Publisher:	Springer-Verlag New York, LLC
Publication date:	06/30/2021
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

Dr. Lester is a retired professor of the Pritzker School of Medicine and the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Chicago. As a board certified pediatric pulmonologist, she has spent her career as a clinician, educator, research collaborator and administrator. During her career she has written research papers, case reports, book and journal reviews, research grants and book chapters, and has mentored fellows and junior faculty and encouraged their writing, but the life of a busy academic physician did not give her space for a more ambitious writing project. 

She has had the idea of writing a book about “how women do medicine” for many years. During her time as a student, trainee, practicing physician and during her 30 years on a medical school faculty, she and many of her colleagues observed interesting differences in the way men and women practiced medicine. Thinking about the nature of these differences and about whether they had changed over time led her to a more indepth interest in and exploration of the recent history of medicine. She became a member of the American Association for the History of Medicine after retirement, and colleagues that she met and connections she made through this group helped to solidify her decision to write an updated history of women and the way they practice medicine.

Table of Contents

 The 1950s “The Quota System”.-The 1960s The Role of Feminism and The Women’s Movement.-The 1970s  "The Effect of Title IX and related legislation".-The 1980s “Having It All” / “Doing It All”.-
The 1990s “The Glass Ceiling”.- 2000- 2010 "Doing What it Takes".-2010- 2020 "Life Style Issues".-Epilogue Do Women Do Medicine Differently?  Arguments For and Against.-Appendix I: Questionnaire for Interviews.-Appendix II:Summary of Interview Findings 

Editorial Reviews

Reviewer: Alain Touwaide, PhD (Ronin Institute)
Description: The title of this book is explicit: a review of 70 years of women in medicine. What the title does not specify, however, is that these 70 years are mostly about the United States. This omission does not take anything from the book as it can be reasonably expected that a projection of the results presented here might be valid for other comparable parts of the world. All the elements in the title are significant, including "practice." The book is not about medical research, but about medicine "on the ground."
Purpose: The book aims to dissect the transformation that happened in the practice of medicine over the 70 years under examination. To this end, it considers the personal experience of women physicians as well as the structural transformations that took place in the medical environment, from the rules and regulations of medical schools to the closer scrutiny of sexual harassment throughout society for example. In so doing, it aims to account for the multiple, intertwined factors that contributed to the process under analysis in a combination that closely adheres to the facts and offers a realistic image of a complex phenomenon that could easily be reduced to a simple ideological transformation.
Audience: The potential audience of this analysis is as wide as the medical market could be. It can span the whole range of individuals in contact in one way or another with medicine, from students wishing to enroll in medical school to patients in contact with physicians. Ideally, this book should be in all medical places, available to any person in contact with the medical world "in action."
Features: The structure of the book is simple: seven chapters, seven decades, seven analyses. Each chapter has an iconic aspect immediately announced in its title, from quotas (in the 1950s) to lifestyle issues (in the 2010s). The analysis is clear, simple, and direct - facts, facts, and facts. After years of writing scientific literature, the author has adopted a simple writing style that offers the great advantage of efficiency. It is almost forensic, dissecting the facts with great precision and always with all the necessary support material. Some tables offer quantitative data and a couple of caricatures add a note of humor.
Assessment: This is a very needed book. Deeply rooted in its epoch, it is extremely timely and, at the same time, timeless. More than a report on the current state of affairs in the practice of medicine with its evolution over the past 70 years (which covers two generations of single individuals), it is a testament to medical humanities, showing that medicine in the hands of women is "more patient-centered," "better at decoding non-verbal cues," and "more perceptive," delivering "more preventive care" (pp. 218-219).

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