THE FUSE

I was recently invited to give a keynote address for a regional American Medical Women’s Association (AMWA) conference. I chose as my topic for this group of female medical students, “Finding Your Voice.” I felt, it being Women’s History Month, that it was important to share the stories of women in medicine who, through advocating for themselves and others, changed the path for women in medicine. I discussed Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell, the first woman to receive a medical degree in 1849. I discussed Dr. Bertha Van Hoosen, the founder of AMWA, who created the organization in 1915 after being barred from membership in the Chicago Gynecological and Obstetrical Society. And I discussed why speaking up and finding your voice as a woman in medicine is so critical.