The Spark, Episode 20 - Gender in Medicine

For much of medicine’s history as a profession, it was a crime for women to be doctors. While women gained the right to study and practice medicine in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, by 1965 less than 10% of medical school graduates were women. That changed dramatically in the 1970s with the Equal Rights Amendment and Title IX. Today, more women than men are enrolled in medical school but have we reached equity? And how do other identities such as race intersect with gender? Host Tessnim Ahmad (resident) is joined by Dr. Urmimala Sarkar (Professor of Medicine) and Dr. LaMisha Hill (Director of the Multicultural Resource Center).

Some of the data on leadership is from Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic's book, Why Do So Many Incompetent Men Become Leaders? (And How to Fix It). Special thanks to Sarah Ahmad, neurology fellow at UCSF, whose research on microaggressions helped spur the creation of this episode.

Music: Sneaker Chase by Podington Bear. Licensed under CC BY-NC 3.0.