Throughout the month of March, along with the rest of our country, we at the UAB School of Medicine have celebrated Women’s History Month. Although over the course of human events, women and men have both labored to innovate scientific discoveries, create artistic masterpieces, and build civilizations, all too often the historical narrative has relegated women to a secondary role – or rendered them invisible. This month, we celebrate the countless achievements of women through the ages, while at the same time realizing the distance we must still traverse in our pursuit of equality.
On March 22, Dr. Valerie Montgomery Rice visited the School of Medicine to discuss issues confronting women in medicine and science. Dr. Rice is the 6th president of Morehouse School of Medicine, and the first woman to lead the free-standing medical institution, as well as the founding director of the Center for Women’s Health Research at Meharry Medical College.
Her visit, sponsored by the School of Medicine Office for Diversity and Inclusion, was one of several Diversity Grand Rounds visits taking place throughout the academic year. While women throughout the world struggle to make progress in a society that institutionalizes inequality, the gendered gap is seldom more obvious than in the STEM fields, a reality that Dr. Rice acknowledged in her address. Dr. Rice discussed her own professional journey, overcoming stereotypes of both gender and race as she pursued higher education in the 1970s and 1980s as a daughter of a single mother.
“Overcoming the hurdles to equality are in part about empowering people to believe that opportunities exist for them,” Dr. Rice stated. She pointed out that between third and fifth grade, girls begin to change their opinion of how smart they are – for the worse. As a result, women are less likely than men to pursue STEM majors in college. “This means women examine their career opportunities and don’t see people who look like them,” she said. Dr. Rice noted that institutional culture can often contribute to a sense that women are less relevant or less valued than their male counterparts, and that both women and men must serve as advocates to change this reality.
It is incumbent upon all of us to laud the significant contributions of women to society in general, and to medicine and science in particular. Contributions such as those made by Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell, who not only became the first woman admitted to a medical school in the United States, but who co-founded the New York Infirmary for Women and Children in 1857; of Marie Curie, who earned two Nobel prizes and who became the first female professor at the Sorbonne; of Dr. Rebecca Lee Crumpler, the first African American woman to earn a medical degree in the U.S., and who dedicated her life caring for the health of freed slaves who would otherwise have lacked access to medical care. We think of Dr. Virginia Apgar, who in 1952 developed a standardized system for evaluating the health of newborn babies; of Dr. Nancy Dickey, the former first woman president of the American Medical Association; of Selma Kaderman Dritz, an epidemiologist whose seminal work on HIV and AIDS put her on the frontline of prevention efforts. We think of Rosalind Franklin, a geneticist whose work was instrumental to the discovery of DNA; of Patricia Goldman-Rakic, a neuroscientist who was one of the first researchers to fully chart the frontal lobe of the brain, and who has guided medical science to new understandings of Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s. We think of women who are at the forefront of their field here at UAB, and of the myriad women who heroically care for patients, perform research, shepherd students and mentor colleagues on a daily basis.
There are far too many heroic and trailblazing women to name in a single article – or even to fully celebrate in a single month. Yes, women still confront significant challenges and systemic inequity. We must contend with chronic pay inequity, uneven expectations regarding work in the home, and gender stereotyping. We grapple with issues of inadequate representation, and career penalties, both hidden and overt, that are levied against us for motherhood. Women everywhere, whether they hold a surgeon’s scalpel or a laundry basket, carry a disproportionate burden of home responsibilities and a larger barrier to recognition of their professional excellence. The pursuit of equality is a marathon, and each generation of women passes the baton for the race to the next, with a spirit of determination and hope.
In the words of Marie Curie, “Life is not easy for any of us. But what of that? We must have perseverance and, above all, confidence in ourselves. We must believe that we are gifted for something and that this thing must be attained.”
March is the month dedicated each year to celebrate women’s history – but every month of the year we must commit ourselves to mapping the path for our future.