Five female doctors affiliated with the Dartmouth Medical Center discussed issues that confront women who administer health care with an audience of about 30 people last night.
Career Services sponsored the discussion titled "Women in Health," which was held in 101 Collis.
The members of the panel included Dr. Joan Barthold, an obstetrician/gynecologist; Drs. Linda Dacey and Elaine Fleming, who specialize in internal medicine; Dr. Letha Mills, a hematologist/oncologist and Dr. Martha Reagan-Smith, an internist.
Marilyn Prouty, a nurse affiliated with DMS, moderated the discussion.
Prouty began the panel discussion by emphasizing the need for intelligent and articulate members of the medical community to help legislate and improve medicine in the future.
Each doctor also described how she became involved in medicine.
Barthold said she was hesitant to pursue a career in medicine because her father and mother had been doctors.
"I was made to feel that you could not balance medicine and family," she said.
Mills said her father encouraged her to become a nurse, rather than a doctor.
"I went to nursing school at the University of Pennsylvania," she said. "I could not stand it. I got a 4.0 and decided to quit to go to med school. I got into three med schools but my father would only pay for Dartmouth because that was where he went."
The panelists spoke about the lack of female mentors in the medical profession and the difficulties they endured as medical students.
"I have felt for some time that there is some of the hierarchy left in training which is what makes it difficult," Prouty said. "I get the impression that doctors think, 'I had to suffer, therefore, you have to suffer. I had to stay up late, therefore, you have to stay up late.'"
When asked about the lack of female surgeons, Barthold responded, "The operating room is still an all-boy's club, but there are situations where things work the other way."
"In G-Y-N, most nurses are female and one time we were joking around and a male nurse asked, 'is this harassment?'" she said.
Mills said there are advantages and disadvantages to being a woman in medicine.
"As a woman, compassion is expected," she said. "My husband can get away with seeing three times as many patients because he is allowed to cut off patients who are telling him things."
Reagan-Smith spoke about the difficulty of balancing career and home life as a woman.
"When my second husband proposed to me he also said that he would want to get a full-time housekeeper," she said. "This was hard for me to accept being from the '50s and '60s. It was different then. I wanted to be a great cook and a good hostess."
As the panel ended, the doctors gave parting advice to the audience.
Barthold reminded the audience to "be true to yourself." Fleming said, "It's the journey and not where you end up."
