Chicks in Medicine

I love my profession.  I received my “M.D.” in 2005, became a pediatrician in 2008, and completed my fellowship in endocrinology after working in the real world for several years before going back to school in 2012.  During my fellowship, I became a mother at the age of 35.  During that time, I became obsessed with learning about how women succeed at being doctors while also succeeding at motherhood.  As it turns out, this balance is still a struggle for many of us.

Looking back, Elizabeth Blackwell was the first woman in the U.S. to earn a medical degree back in 1849. Although now many of us visit with female physicians, medicine has only very recently started to shift. In 1970, fewer than 10% of doctors were women. Today, women make up almost 40% of practicing physicians and more than half of medical students. 

But the story isn’t all upward momentum. Women are still underrepresented in the highest-paying specialties, and when it comes to leadership, the numbers drop even further—only about a quarter of department chairs or deans are women. And the pay gap? It’s still there. Even after all this time, women physicians earn noticeably less than men, whether they’re in primary care or in specialty fields.  Fields that are dominated by women tend to suffer the most in terms of pay equity.

What makes this even harder is the personal side of it. Many women physicians today are partnered with people who also have demanding careers. That means that the day-to-day reality—raising kids, managing households, making life work—falls disproportionately on women. Many of us delay having children, and when we do, we face higher rates of infertility. And even when we do “have it all,” it often comes with exhaustion and burnout.

So yes, we’ve made incredible strides—but we’re still trying to reconcile medicine with real life. What I see in the younger generation, though, gives me hope. They’re much more willing to say “no” to unreasonable schedules. They value balance. They want work that allows them to be whole people, not just doctors.

That’s a shift we need to take seriously. Because keeping good physicians—especially women—in the workforce isn’t just about fairness, it’s about the survival of medicine as a profession. It’s about building systems that recognize we’re humans first, doctors second.

And when I think about the women I know locally, that message rings especially true. We need better childcare options, flexible scheduling, real mentorship, and a culture that helps workers have meaningful lives outside the hospital. Those aren’t “nice extras.” They’re the things that will decide whether women stay in medicine, or whether they walk away.

That’s the story of women in medicine. It’s a story of progress, but also of unfinished work. And it’s on all of us to keep pushing, so the next generation doesn’t just break into the profession—they get to thrive in it.