Bookend
Our generations
In 1960, a woman entering medicine had all the normal hurdles to overcome and then some. So what’s it like for her daughter?
When my oldest daughter, Lydia, was four years old, she announced that she wanted to be a nurse when she grew up.“Why not a doctor?” I asked.“Women can’t be doctors,” Lydia replied.This was an idea she had picked up in nursery school, although I, her mother, had practiced medicine her entire life. We had a talk, and I mounted a re-education campaign. At age 10, Lydia was determined to become a physician; today she is one, with a promising career in academic medicine ahead of her.Since her graduation from medical school in 1991 and her residency at Yale, we’ve had the opportunity to compare notes about the experiences of women in medicine. Despite significant differences in our professional lives — it is...
From Other Issues
Fall 1999 | Winter 2000
10,000 house calls and counting
The familiar, rhythmic tones interrupted my pre-dawn reverie that early-spring morning. I rolled out of bed and made...
Spring 1999
Face to face with Ray
Over the last four years, I have listened to hundreds of patient stories as a medical student taking histories. Not all...
Winter 1999
Can’t talk now
I met him in the emergency room. As a third-year student, I now performed many basic procedures on a daily basis but...
Summer 1998
The four humors weren't that funny
Laughter, they say, is the best medicine. But can laughter cure Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus? Let me put...
