Every year, September marks a time when we celebrate the contributions of women to medicine and science.  On September 13, 2021 at noon, we are pleased to welcome Dr. Reshma Jagsi, MD, DPhl, the Newman Family Professor and Deputy Chair in the Department of Radiation Oncology and Director of the Center for Bioethics and Social Sciences in Medicine at the University Michigan.  Dr. Jagsi is one of the most sought after speakers on the topic of gender equity in medicine, and her visit with us will further stimulate our exploration of strategies to further advance women in science and medicine at Penn.  If you have not yet registered for her virtual presentation "Promoting Equity for Women in Medicine:  Seizing A Disruptive Opportunity", you can do so here.

This September in particular, there is so much to celebrate.  Consider the numbers of women applying and matriculating in medical schools. The numbers are progressively increasing, reflecting more realistically the proportion of women in the nation.  In last fall’s entering class across allopathic schools of medicine, 11.926 matriculants self-identified as women which corresponded to 53.6% of the entering class.  This was at a time when there was record number of matriculants overall at 22,239.  Although there was a 0.6% decline in the overall applicants last fall, at 53,030 compared to the prior year, these last two years represent among the highest number of applicants ever to allopathic schools of medicine. (https://www.aamc.org/data-reports/students-residents/interactive-data/2020-facts-applicants-and-matriculants-data) Similarly, at Penn Medicine, our numbers of women who are medical students, trainees, graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and faculty continue to grow.  Moreover, the proportion of female chairs of academic departments at 25% of academic chairs in the Perelman School of Medicine is higher than the national average at 18%. (Source: AAMC, 2018); it is also remarkable that three of our six CEOs of the hospitals which comprise Penn Medicine are women.  Representation of diverse talent is definitely going in the right direction, however there is still more progress that must be achieved in the future.

Stepping back, it is important to note the brave women who came before and continue to be inspiring role models.  In March, 2020, the AAMC celebrated 10 women medical pioneers. (https://www.aamc.org/news-insights/celebrating-10-women-medical-pioneers) These pioneers included two of our former guest speakers.  Drs. Antonia Novello and Jocelyn Elders were our invited speakers in a previous Women in Medicine month.  Dr. Novello was the first woman surgeon general and first Hispanic surgeon general; Dr. Elders was our nation’s first African American surgeon general.  Additional women who are listed among the women medical pioneers are the following: Elizabeth Blackwell MD (1821-1910, first woman in the United States to be granted an MD), Rebecca Lee Crumpler, MD (1831-1895, first African American woman to earn an MD degree in the United States), Mary Putnam Jacobi, MD (1842 – 1906, affirming the strength of women throughout their menstrual cycle), Ann Preston, MD (1813-1872, first woman dean of a school of medicine), Susan LaFlesche Picotte, MD (1865-1915, opened a hospital to serve Native Americans), Gerty Theresa Cori, PhD (1896-1957, the first U.S. woman to win a Nobel prize in science, Virginia Apgar, MD (1909-1974, created a score to assess the health of neonates), and Patricia Goldman-Rakic, PhD (1937-2003, neuroscientist and scholar, developing insight into our understanding of cognition, planning, and memory). 

Populating our own list of remarkable women at Penn, there are several luminaries.  Two remarkable names include Dr. Katalin Kariko and Dr. Helen Dickens.  Dr. Kariko who is currently an adjunct associate professor and a senior vice president at BioNTech in partnership with Dr. Drew Weissman discovered the messenger RNA biology underlying the efficacy of the vaccines combatting the COVID-19 virus today.  Their discovery provided the opportunity to reopen the businesses, schools, and universities across the nation and provided opportunities for families and friends to reconnect after months of isolation (https://www.pennmedicine.org/news/news-releases/2020/december/penn-mrna-biology-pioneers-receive-covid19-vaccine-enabled-by-their-foundational-research).   We also wish to highlight the work Dr. Helen Dickens, whose tenure as a dean at the University of Pennsylvania resulted in the recruitment of hundreds of diverse students to the school of medicine.  She has been described as a “medical and social activist, health equity advocate, researcher and health educator.”  Recently, her portrait which was previously hanging on a lower floor has been elevated to a full exhibit on Stemmler 1, so that more members of the Penn Medicine community can appreciate her contributions and be inspired by her life’s work.  (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helen_Octavia_Dickens).

Indeed, this is a time to celebrate the accomplishments of women who not only came before us, but also who our current leaders and are facilitating the path forward for future generations.   We stand on the shoulders of so many pioneers, however it is important to continue to infuse hope and inspire fortitude into the next generation of scientists and providers.   Collectively, the full engagement of this more diverse community enhances the quality of care to our patients and intensifies the magnitude of innovation in scientific discovery.  Institutionally, we continue to work towards strengthening our infrastructure to ensure the vitality and well-being of everyone in the Penn Medicine community.  In our next blog, we look forward to celebrating the women who are advancing our efforts to address structural racism otherwise known as Action for Cultural Transformation or ACT, which is critical to the development of an infrastructure that supports, inspires, and fosters thriving professional careers for everyone.