Women have been leaders in anesthesiology since the early days of our specialty. As early as 1909, Dr. Isabella Herb, the first woman president of the American Association of Anesthetists, served as head of the department of anesthesia at Presbyterian Hospital. And Dr. Herb is not alone. Our specialty is rich in women leaders, including four ASA presidents in the past decade.
And yet, although gender parity has been achieved in medical school admissions and graduations, women still make up just over a third of full-time faculty in academic anesthesiology in the U.S. and remain under-represented in leadership positions and as award recipients (The state of women in academic medicine: the pipeline and pathways to leadership. 2014). Women in anesthesiology continue to be compensated at lower rates than their male counterparts (asamonitor.pub/3h1hY3n). And when it comes to information about the lived experiences of women in our field, information...
