International Women's Day 2025

International Women's Day lands on 8th March 2025. This blog will both celebrate the achievements of women in medicine, as well as highlighting the lack of equality that still exists for both female medical students, as well as professionals. Whilst there is still progress to be made, for the first time in history, female doctors outweigh the total number of male doctors, showing how the medical profession has become more accommodating towards women (Campbell, 2025).

However, there are still areas where women are underrepresented massively. For example, research suggests that women are underrepresented as first and senior authors in journal publications, with the reason behind this being due to difficulties in career progression making it harder to publish than their male counterparts (Silver, Poorman, Reilly, et al, 2018). Furthermore, areas in medicine that are more challenging for women include gender bias in promotion, salary inequity, professional isolation, bullying, sexual harassment and lack of recognition, which are all factors which can lead to potential burnout which can harm the prospect of furthering their career (Joseph, Ahasic, Clark & Templeton, 2021). Furthermore, this extends to medical students, where a survey which consisted of 759 students from 31 different universities, found that female students experienced more gender discrimination than male students (Stock & Kaifie, 2024). This shows that despite the progress that has been made, medicine is still an area where it is made more difficult for women to advance their career in comparison to men.

Notable Women in Medicine

Elizabeth Blackwell

Elizabeth Blackwell was born near Bristol in 1821, before moving to the United States of America in 1832. She became the first woman in the USA to receive a medical degree, and became a pioneer in supporting women in medicine. She opened her own medical college for women which broke down barriers in allowing women to train in medicine in an environment where they did not face as much discrimination as previously (Michals, 2015).

Elizabeth Garrett Andersen

Born in Whitechapel, East London, Elizabeth Garrett Andersen had sought a passion to become a doctor after speaking to the aforementioned Elizabeth Blackwell. Her attempts to study medicine were repeatedly denied, until she attended classed intended for male doctors at Middlesex hospital, where she was barred due to complaints from other students. However, the Society of Apothecaries did not specifically forbid women from taking the examination to become a doctor, therefore she passed and became a doctor, but following this, changes were made to ensure women could no longer take the examination. In 1866, she established a dispensary for women in London, and in 1872, she founded the New Hospital for Women in London, where Elizabeth Blackwell was appointed as professor of gynaecology. This was a factor which helped in the passing of the act in 1876 which allowed women to train in the medical profession (BBC, n.d).

Josephine Barnes

Josephine Barnes was considered as one of the leading obstetricians and gynaecologists of her generation. She was just one of five women studying medicine at Oxford in her year, and transferred to University College Hospital (UCH) for clinical training after graduating with a first in physiology. At the start if the second world war, she worked at the Samaritan hospital, and from 1947, she ran a mobile obstetric team from UCH. She became the first female president of the British Medical Association (University of Oxford, n.d.).

References

BBC (n.d.). Elizabeth Garrett Anderson (1836-1917). BBC History. Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/garrett_anderson_elizabeth.shtml (Accessed 8 March 2025)

Campbell, D (2025). Female doctors outnumber male peers in UK for the first time. The Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/mar/06/female-doctors-outnumber-male-peers-in-uk-for-first-time (Accessed 8 March 2025)

Joseph, M., Ahasic, A., Clark, J., Templeton, K (2021). State of Women in Medicine: History, Challenges, and the Benefits of a Diverse Workforce. Pediatrics

Michals, D (2015). Elizabeth Blackwell. National Women's History Museum. Available at: https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/elizabeth-blackwell(Accessed 8 March 2025)

Silver, J., Poorman, J., Reilly, J., Spector, N., Goldstein, R., Zafonte, R (2018). Assessment of Women Physicians Among Authors of Perspective-Type Articles Published in High-Impact Pediatric Journals. JAMA Network Open

Stock, J., Kaifie, A (2024) The effects of gender discrimination on medical students‘ choice of specialty for their (junior) residency – a survey among medical students in Germany. BMC Medical Education. Available at: https://bmcmededuc.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12909-024-05579-9 (Accessed 8 March 2025)

University of Oxford (n.d.). Alice Josephine Barnes. Department of Physiology, Anatomy & Genetics, University of Oxford. Available at: https://www.dpag.ox.ac.uk/women-in-physiology-anatomy-genetics/alice-josephine-barnes (Accessed 8 March 2025)