political corruption of medical and sanitary character? Wake up, Pennsylvania! There is nothing surprising in the list of States offering the most favorable opportunities for medical women, except the fact that there are no more of them. Six of the twenty-eight States reporting on these questionaires appear to offer excellent opportunities and, in five of them, at least, the opportunities seem to be as well utilized and appreciated by the women as is possible. In order to verify the reports of these ques tionaires in certain particulars, and to enlarge the scope or field as much as possible, I have had checked up in the Dictionary of the American Medical Association (Fifth Edition) for 1916 the numbers of medical women in the United States and Canada, with the results shown in the following table: State Alabama Arizona Idaho Missouri Total Women • Physicians Physicians (A.M.A. figures) (Approximate) Arkansas .2,637 25 California 5,687 520 Colorado 1,733 111 Connecticut .1,678 63 Delaware 261 District of Columbia 1,482 59 Florida 1,321 33 The number of women is given as approximate only in the above table because of the difficulty sometimes in determining definitely whether a name were that of a man or a woman. Under such circumstances it seemed best to underestimate the women rather than err in the other direction, especially if the college from which the person graduated was co-educational. "Marion," "Evelyn," "Francis," and "Jean" were among the names always counted as men unless graduated from a woman's college. It might be imagined a simple thing to check the women's names, or the men's names, in any given list, but it has been my experience in this checking of names in the American Medical Association Directory to find a "Melvin" graduated from the Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania, an "Addison" from the New York Medical College and Hospital for Women-two distinctly women's medical colleges. On the other side of this picture may be mentioned a "Beth" from Harvard and "Ivy" from New York University and Bellevue Medical College, and, most confusing of all, two "Pearls" from Harvard. From data thus gathered from the American Medical Association Directory, and subject to the possible error, already noted, of underestimation of women, the following percentage table has been made to show: First, the proportion of the general population which is composed of physicians; second, the percentage of physicians licensed in any given State, Territory, or Province who are medical women: third, the percentage of the membership of the State or Territorial Medical Society of the various States and Territories who are women; fourth, the percentage of the medical men of the State or Territory who are also members of the State or Territorial Medical Society; and fifth, the percentage of the medical women of the State or Territory who are also members of the State or Territorial Medical Society. From this it appears that the figures from the questionaires are approximately correct for Connecticut, Ohio, Utah, Vermont, and Virginia, and only relatively correct for Idaho and Louisiana; whereas Arizona, Michigan, and New Hampshire are all underestimated, and Illinois is much overrated in the answers to the questionaire. In the latter case the difference seems to be too great to be reconciled by the possible underestimation in the American Medical Association Directory count of women physicians. From the American Medical Association Directory list the following States have women with rank of Professor, Associate, or Assistant Professor on medical faculties in co-educational medical schools: California, District of Columbia, Illinois (6), Indiana, Maryland, Nebraska, and Pennsylvania (University of Pittsburgh); and the subjects so taught are: Dietetics, Bacteriology, and Pathology; Microscopy and Chemical Diagnosis; Electro-Therapy and Radiography; Clinical Gynecology; Embryology; Obstetrics and Clinical Obstetrics; Medicine; Pediatrics; Anatomy; and Laryngology and Rhinology. This does not include the medical women who are teaching in the women's medical colleges, nor does it include women teaching in co-educational colleges with rank lower than assistant professor. To me it was a bit of interesting information as illustrative of the scope and variety of subjects in which women hold professorial rank in direct competition with men. The twelve medical women filling these positions rank as follows: Three Professors (1 each in Figures from A.M.A. Directory Licensed medical women.....2.93% State Medical Society women..0.66 Licensed medical women.....3.75 State Medical Society women..3.02 Licensed medical women.....2.50 State Medical Society women..1.43 Licensed medical women..... 6.17 State Medical Society women..4.04 Licensed medical women.... 1.12 State Medical Society women..1.65 Licensed medical women.....4.04 State Medical Society women..2.83 Licensed medical women.....5.07 State Medical Society women..4.29 Licensed medical women.....3.74 State Medical Society women..2.48 Licensed medical women.....3.44 State Medical Society women..1.68 Licensed medical women.....1.80 State Medical Society women..1.04 Licensed medical women.....0.78 State Medical Society women..0.39 sylvania); and 3 Assistant Professors (all in Illinois). It is also of interest to note a medical woman is president of the State Board of Health in Wyoming, in which State 14 of the 251 physicians are medical women, and 3 of the 14 women in the State are noted as interested in some specialty in medicine. Two of these three women are interested in Gynecology and one in Ophthalmology-this latter case is the only woman who belongs to the American Medical Association, and one of the only two women be longing to the State Medical Society. It has been implied by a number of our medical brethren at various times that the field par excellence for medical women was social service or laboratory work. In this connection it will be of interest to note that of the 5,124 women in active practice in the Continental United States (365 are listed as "not in practice" and 29 as "retired"), 1,313 are credited with interest in some specialty in the American Medical Association Directory list: and of this number 34 are specializing exclusively in Bacteriology. Clinical Pathology, Pathology, and Public Health; 5 more are exclusively devoted to Roentgenology. In addition there are 34 more women "especially interested" in Bacteriology. Clinical Pathology, Pathology, and Public Health, and 11 more in Rengenology, though this last 45 are not devoting themselves exclusively to these fields. The following chart, made up from the American Medical Association Directory list, is of interest in showing the fields of special interest to women in the practice of medicine: and Rhinology.. 12. Pathology 22 .Total women, 28 (Practiced exclusively by.. 8 Total women, 25 9 6 10 5 Total women, 16 11 3 9. Clinical Pathology.. Laryngology, 13. Dermatology Roentgenology 14. Orthopedic Surgery... 15. Internal Medicine... Laryngology and Rhinology Public Health. 16. Bacteriology Special interest expressed by..... 25 Special interest expressed by..... 17 Special interest expressed by..... 10 17. Ophthalmalogy & Otology. Practiced exclusively by..... 18. Proctology 19. Urology 1 woman...Total women, 7 women) 7 1 woman ...Total women, 7 .Total women, 5 Special interest expressed by. From these figures it appears that Gynecology (449), Obstetrics (144), Pediatrics (129), and Ophthalmology (either alone or with ear, nose, and throat it can claim 125 women) are the specialties most attractive to the women who restrict or partially restrict their practice of medicine to some particular field, and together these four specialties claim 16.53 percent of all the medical women in active practice in the country, and 64.51 percent of those specializing. Contrasted with this are the social service and laboratory fields-i. e., Clinical Pathology (34), Pathology (19), Rentgenology (16), Public Health (8), and Bacteriology (7)-which can claim but 1.64 percent of the medical women in active practice and 6.40 percent of those specializing; and this in face of the fact that 25.62 per cent of the active medical women are specializing in some field or other. Of the 5,518 medical women registered in the Continental United States, 5,124 are actively engaged in practice; of the 6.96 percent who are not practicing, 29 or 7.36 percent are retired, presumably because of superannuation, since all 29 graduated prior to 1875, and most of them in the '60's, and have therefore earned their release from activity. Of the remaining 365 noupracticing women physicians, 194, or 53.15 percent, are designated as Homeopathic, and 6 are designated as Eclectic, and 1 as Physio-medical; thus 55.06 percent of those who are listed as "not in practice" are Homeopathic, Eclectic, and Physio-medical graduates. Of the 5,124 active medical women, 287 are Homeopathic, 77 Eclectic, and 13 Physio-medical Comparing, so far as possible from the sta In Colorado, Wyoming, Massachusetts, Oregon, Illinois, Nebraska, and California, in order of precedence, the women seem least to have appreciated the value and advantage to be gained by professional contact with their brethren and sisters in an organization intended primarily for personal benefit to its members. Membership in a State medical society, which may have only occasional meetings for discussion of professional character, presupposes membership in a local county medical society, which usually meets on an average of ten times a year, and should be of substsantial benefit to its members professionally by the scope and character of the medical topics discussed. It is apparent on the whole that the women of the country have not taken advantage of this professional opportunity to the extent that the men have done, and these eight States offer a fair comparison in this respect. For the Continental United States we find 53.9 percent of the men in their respective State societies as compared to 38.1 percent of the women. Of the States listed above, New Hampshire only shows her women to be above the average in their professional alertness, but this is balanced in part by the fact that only in New Hampshire, Massa chusetts, and Illinois are the men beyond the average in alertness. New Hampshire has only 690 physicians all together, of whom 35 are women; but even so, the percentage of physicians in the community is 0.16 percent as compared with 0.14 percent for the Continental United States. It should by all evidences be an unusu ally healthy State. Of the eight States in this list, so far as I can ascertain, California, Colorado, Illinois, Massachusetts, and Oregon have one or more co-educational colleges. According to the information at hand Wyoming has no medical college at all and New Hampshire only one at present which is not co-educational. Of those having co-educational institutions, according to my information medical women are at least represented by membership, either professorial or as instructors, in the medi tisties gathered, the relative activity of the medical faculties of California, Colorado, Illinois, and Massachusetts, which fact suggests that the women receive professional recognition according to merit, and any deficiency of recognition is not due to sex, but to ability. |
