Women in Medicine

It could be argued that Dr. Virginia Apgar, creator of the eponymous Apgar Score for assessing the health of newborns,1,2 is the most famous anesthesiologist of all time. There can be no argument, however, that she is the most famous woman anesthesiologist of all time. Virginia Apgar was Director of the Division of Anesthesiology at the College of Physicians and Surgeons at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center from 1938 until 1949, when Dr. Emanuel Papper was appointed Director of the Anesthesiology Service in the Department of Surgery and Director of the Anesthesiology Service at Presbyterian Hospital. Virginia Apgar subsequently left Columbia to direct the research program at the March of Dimes. It was almost 5 decades after Virginia Apgar was passed over to lead the Anesthesiology Service before Columbia University appointed its first woman physician to chair a clinical Department in 1995. I was that woman, and as Chair of the Department of Anesthesiology at Columbia University, I was asked by Dr. Shafer, Editor-in-Chief of Anesthesia & Analgesia, to share my personal reflections on women in anesthesiology. Like many female colleagues of my generation, I have had a unique opportunity to observe the arrival of women in leadership positions in medicine and to bequeath to the men and women who follow us a more open and accepting career path for women in medicine. This legacy will allow today's women physicians to aspire to a career in medicine in the specialty of their choice that reflects their skills and commitment. It was not always so. Remembering what it took us to get here will, I hope, help to ensure the equal success of future generations of physicians independent of their sex. The medical school class of Virginia Apgar looked very different from a class of today. Whereas the graduating class at Columbia in 2014 was 50% women, 60 years ago. The small number of current women leaders in academic medicine have bequeathed to the much larger numbers of women physicians who follow them an opportunity and an obligation to demonstrate that women have the commitment to lead departments and institutions. It was not easy for the women who preceded you and it will not be easy for you, but it can be done if you are prepared and committed to the task. I wish you good luck and believe that the world will be a better place for our sons and daughters if you succeed. DISCLOSURES Name: Margaret Wood, MB ChB, FRCA. Contribution: This author wrote the manuscript. Attestation: Margaret Wood has approved the final submitted version of this manuscript. This manuscript was handled by: Steven L. Shafer, MD.