Women in medicine

Bertha Van Hoosen, MD, a founder of AMWA (via Chicago History Museum)

Last night I attended a dinner that I have been looking forward to all year. Our school's chapter of the American Medical Women's Association (AMWA), hosts the Woman-to-Woman Soirée that brings together alumna, female faculty, and female students for dinner and conversation. They rent out a cute little wine bar nearby and we have the whole place to ourselves.

The older women gave us advice and anecdotes about everything from dating in medical school to when to have babies to finding time to give back to the community. The only thing that is on my mind right now is getting through school and landing a residency, so I'm not going crazy (yet) about planning a family. Most of the women present are of a different generation, so nearly all of them made family the first priority in their lives. "We talk about having a good grip on work-life balance but, truthfully, our lives are not balanced. We just had to give up the guilt that comes with not finishing everything we think we should be doing."

There was one physician in attendance, Dr. S, who was a refreshing contrast to all of the other ladies there. She's an energetic 37 year-old and just got married in the fall. Dr. S said she was single throughout all of her training and dated a lot but was never intent on finding her Prince Charming. "I thought, if it happens, then it happens. We all want to fall deeply in love with a guy but I was already deeply in love with medicine." Dr. S will try to have kids, but her priority is living in the now. I loved that she had a relatively non-traditional view on the profession. It felt so relieving to hear someone say it's okay to not do what everyone else expects you to do -- though we only talked briefly, I felt like she and I had a lot of similar attitudes on life. It helped that we both attended WashU and were wearing the same J.Crew coat.

With articles such as this one that questions whether studying medicine is a worthwhile investment for women, I went into the dinner ready to hear sad tales of marginalization and patronization from male coworkers. Instead, every woman would do it again. "If you find something you love to do, it makes a lifelong career enjoyable, not a job." I loved hearing that and am reenergized to finish school.