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The Wondrous Story of Anesthesia pp 185–203Cite as

A History of Women in American Anesthesiology

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Abstract

Women came slowly to medicine and anesthesia. The first modern woman physician, Elizabeth Blackwell, received her degree in 1849. The University of Zurich Medical School enrolled women in 1867. To increase their opportunities, American women founded 17 medical schools and 7 hospitals in the 19th century, but the move to scientific medicine prompted by the Flexner Report caused closure of all but one after 1910. Men avoided anesthesia because it offered minimal pay and status in the 19th century, but that presented an opening for women such as Herb in Chicago and Botsford in San Francisco at the turn of the century. In 1916, women constituted 19% of the American Association of Anesthetists (AAA) membership, but only 3.6% of physicians were women.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. The David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, Los Angeles, CA, USA

    Selma Harrison Calmes MD

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  1. Selma Harrison Calmes MD
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Correspondence to Selma Harrison Calmes MD .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Anesthesia and Perioperative Care, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA

    Edmond I Eger II MD Emeritus Professor

  2. Departments of Anesthesia, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA

    Lawrence J. Saidman MD Emeritus Professor

  3. Geoffrey Kaye Museum of Anaesthetic History, Australian and New Zealand College of Anaesthetists, Melbourne, VIC, Australia

    Rod N. Westhorpe OAM, MB, BS FRCA, FANZCA Former Honorary Curator

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Calmes, S. (2014). A History of Women in American Anesthesiology. In: Eger II, E., Saidman, L., Westhorpe, R. (eds) The Wondrous Story of Anesthesia. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-8441-7_16

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