As society and the role of women change in the United States, the current status of women in medicine is in question. The last major report on women in medicine was published in 1968 and documented the problems confronting women in the 1960s.1 A recent conference in September 1976, sponsored by the Josiah Macy, Jr, Foundation, focused on the concerns of women in medicine today. A major purpose of this conference was to review newly available data and document the changes that have taken place for women students, house staff, and faculty in the nation's medical schools in the last decade. A comprehensive report of this conference will be published by the Macy Foundation.
From the early 1900s to the 1960s, the percentage of women in the graduating classes of medical colleges ranged from 2.6% in 1910 to 12.1% in 1949 to 7.3% in 1965.1 In the period