Women have played significant roles in healing fields throughout history. However they were not widely permitted to attend medical training programs until the late 1800s to the early 1900s. In 1930 women made up only 4.4% of students in medical schools. By 1990, women accounted for more than 36% of medical students, and now by 2017, 47.6% of medical school students in the United States are women. (Note: according to 2010 census data, 50.8% of the US population are female.) While this trend represents movement towards gender equality in education, there are far fewer women in most medical school faculty roles, surgical roles, and professional organization leadership positions. Thus, there continue to be opportunities for women to make history. Read more →