Editor’s Note: It is a privilege to record the stories and ideas of one of our living heroes.
“In my day, nothing was a ‘given’ for a woman. There were lots of career hurdles and that was how life was. It was harder for us as women. I have great empathy for all in the profession who are not white males as they share the same hurdles as the women. It was mostly a marathon, but I was pleased to be moving forward. Maybe now it is more equitable.”
I was the recipient of great mentoring during my training and eventually in my subspecialty societies. Not only did these individuals act as trusted advisors, but they also sponsored and encouraged me.
My first mentor suggested that I enter his subspecialty after I had worked for a year at his institution during my residency. I went back and did a fellowship under his guidance.
I then went into practice at another institution. There, I was encouraged to publish and to get involved in committee work.
In my primary subspecialty society, I met another individual who eventually invited me to join the presidential line. I became the society’s first female orthopaedic surgeon president. It was quite an honor and “led to wonderful things” such as work on editorial boards and being invited to co-author a definitive textbook about the disorder the society focused on. It required years of work, and I was pleased to be named first author.
I later went on to do a 6-month traveling fellowship in another area of orthopaedics entirely. My fellowship director was a remarkable woman who sadly passed away too soon. I learned a great deal from her and the skills gained allowed me to expand my scope of practice.
During this time of career enhancement, I was also giving birth to a large family. We hired help at home to make all of this doable. I am pleased to say that all six of my children have turned out well and, as adults, are involved in giving and service work.
I belonged to several key orthopaedic sub-specialty societies as did a number of my female colleagues. It became clear that during the business meetings, there were predetermined individuals who were placed on the all-important nominating committees. Here is how it worked; during the business meeting when the floor was asked to contribute names of candidates to be part of the committee, men positioned around the auditorium and spoke up one after another calling out the preselected names. The process was then rapidly concluded. This relatively closed system of advancing names into leadership positions had a tremendous influence on the direction of these important societies.
After observing enough episodes of this maneuvering, my friends and I decided to enter the fray. We distributed ourselves around a meeting room. Once nominations were called for, we spoke up sequentially and made a major impact on the slate of candidates. This led to an immediate change in who was on the nominating committees and, thus, improved our society’s leadership diversity.
Another memorable anecdote is the following: in my primary subspecialty, women were not and maybe still aren’t paid commensurate with the men. My husband asked the president of my most prestigious subspecialty society: “When will there be equal pay for equal work?” The male president said: “We’re working on that.” My husband responded: “You’ve been working on it for a long time!”
A final remembrance: the chair of a prestigious orthopaedic residency came to visit my program when I was a resident. His program had never accepted a woman into the residency. He and I had a chance to speak, and he also heard me present some patients. He later wrote a letter to my chairman stating that after meeting me, he had decided to accept a female medical student into his program. My chairman gave me his letter and I was able to share it with my parents. It remains a cherished memory and keepsake.
After reflecting on my long career, here is my advice to the readers:
• Don’t let anyone discourage you.
• Don’t let anyone else create your story.
• If someone says something negative to you or says the odds are against you, keep on going. Don’t be deterred.
• Take advantage of good mentoring when it is available.
• Get more help at home than you think you could possibly need to make your personal, family, and professional lives work.
• Consider Philadelphia as a place to practice. It is a great city!