Summer 2007

President's Message

Count this among milestones that shouldn't be extraordinary but is: For the first time in its history, the Medical College of Wisconsin has an M1 class that is 50 percent female. I am proud of this distinction of the class of 2010, but I wish it had not taken 113 years to happen.

The Medical College's demographics reflect similar nationwide patterns. According to the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC), 50 percent of applicants to medical schools in 2005-06 were women. They also represented 48 percent of first-year students and 49 percent of graduating medical students.

This is a jump from 10 years earlier, when women represented 43 percent of first-year enrollment nationwide. It is in stark contrast to 1985-86, where women represented 34 percent of M1s; 1975-76, where 24 percent were women; and 1965-66, where a mere 9 percent of first-year students were female.

The Medical College has in place resources to help correct such disparity. We have a strong student chapter of the American Medical Women's Association. This group promotes the advancement of women in medicine by providing learning, interaction and leadership opportunities to members.

The College also helps make tuition affordable for some female students through its Women's Medical Student Loan Fund, which awards low-interest loans to several students per year and is overseen by the College's Women's Faculty Council.

This Council also helps with another gender issue – women representation in academic medicine. According to the AAMC, women represent 32 percent of medical faculty members, 10 percent of department chairs and 11 percent of medical school deans. The Women's Faculty Council serves as an advisory committee on issues of particular relevance to the professional development of women faculty members.

Such efforts hopefully mean that, in the future, gender parity will be commonplace, not remarkable.

T. Michael Bolger, JD
President and CEO