Here Come the Women

Until recently, the medical profession in this country has been a male preserve. Although the number of women had been rising slowly for some time, a decade ago they constituted less than 8 per cent of all practicing physicians and barely more than 9 per cent of all medical students. Then came the feminist revolution of the 1970's, and the sexual composition of medical-school classes began to change rapidly.Figure 1 tells the story. It shows the percentages of women among students applying and admitted to United States medical schools for the years 1950 to 1980. Applications are shown by the open . . .