Despite outperforming men across nearly every metric in medicine, women are still battling outdated biases—while conservative rhetoric paints them as “diversity hires,” the data suggests it’s actually men who are being propped up.
When Dr. Maria I. New applied to medical school in 1949, she received a rejection from one institution with this audacious note:
“You are an impudent young woman to presume to take the place of a man who will contribute something to medicine, whereas you as a married woman will contribute nothing.”
Undeterred, she earned her medical degree anyway—from the University of Pennsylvania—and became one of the world’s leading pediatric endocrinologists. She was the first female chair of pediatrics at Weill Cornell Medicine, discovered two diseases, and held the longest continuously funded National Institute of Health (NIH) grant.
Dr. Maria New died in 2024, but she continues to inspire her daughter, Dr. Antonia New, a psychiatrist at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City, with her legacy.
Now, imagine a Dr. Maria New with less tenacity, quietly accepting that scathing rejection, and resigning herself to a life of domesticity. Pure sexism would have deprived us of a wealth of medical knowledge. And I fear it threatens the medical world today under this current administration.
Are Men the Diversity Hires in Medicine?
I’m a resident physician of psychiatry in New York state. My female colleagues are the hardest-working people I know. In aggregate, I see more dedication and drive from them compared to my male colleagues. A male residency program director I spoke to also noted that typically, when applicants apply to residency as a couple, “the woman is much stronger than the man, and they eventually break up as a result.”
Anecdotes aren’t data, so let’s consider some research that reflects our personal observations. Medical literature extensively documents differences in practice by a physician’s gender. Women are more likely to practice evidence-based medicine and adhere to clinical guidelines. Nationally, women outpace men in both college and medical school enrollment. In medical training, women outperform their male peers on clinical assessments and are more likely to attain an honors degree.
Beyond test-taking and work ethic, patient outcomes under female physicians are superior to those of their male counterparts. There is a lower likelihood of adverse postoperative short-term outcomes under female surgeons, according to a recent study published in JAMA Surgery. The results replicated an earlier Canadian study that showed a “small but statistically significant decrease” in short-term postoperative death under female surgeons. Another study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine shows reduced mortality and readmission rates for patients of female physicians. Earlier data published in JAMA Internal Medicine reflects the same rates among Medicare patients, with significant reductions in mortality under female doctors.
Clearly, women are more than qualified to be in medicine.
We’re outperforming our male peers on objective measures of competence, direct patient care and patient outcomes.
Therefore, the merit-based hiring practices that the Trump administration vociferously demands should logically reflect these data. Yet, in 2022, women accounted for 38 percent of active physicians in the U.S., up from 26 percent in 2004.
Might this indicate that men, not women, are the “diversity hires” of medicine?
It Was Never About Merit
Women’s contributions to medicine are undeniably advantageous for our society and should serve as a model of excellence that Trump’s administration claims to prioritize. Based on the administration’s expressed goals, they’d want more women in medicine. After all, haven’t I demonstrated that we are “the best people”?
However current conservative attitudes towards educated women expose their claimed focus on merit as a sham. The administration is not even trying to hide its contempt for us, employing insidious tactics to push us back home.
The first tactic is mockery: labeling powerful women “DEI hires” or deliberately mischaracterizing professional women as selfish, bitter spinsters to equate a woman’s career with a life of loneliness. Among other misogynistic malcontents, Charlie Kirk, the founder of Turning Point USA, an organization promoting conservatism in education, lambasts career-driven women in their 30s as “past their prime.” “There are a lot of successful, 35-year-old orthopedic surgeons that have cats, and not kids, and they’re very miserable,” Kirk rudely opined. (What is this conservative obsession with cats and women?)
The second tactic comprises willfully out-of-touch policies that compel women to choose between career and motherhood. The Trump administration floated a petty $5,000 baby bonus (the average cost of having a baby in the U.S. is almost $19,000, with $3,000 in out-of-pocket costs that can easily rise) and presidential medals to incentivize childbirth. Meanwhile, some Republican politicians and pundits dismiss family leave as a “summer break for adults,” while refusing to make family expansion more affordable. They don’t want parents to stay at home; they want mothers to stay at home.
The third tactic involves casting men as an oppressed class and absolving them of responsibility for their self-imposed inability to view women’s success as anything but a personal slight. We’re living amid an aggressive resurgence of violent masculinity that is at best highly misogynistic and at worst potentially lethal to women. Resenting the gap in educational and professional success between the sexes, today’s conservatives claim we’ve abandoned men—to which I say: Work as hard as my female colleagues and I do and tolerate the same expectations around domestic labor, policing of our bodies and disrespect that constitute a woman’s reality. Then and only then, if the disparities persist, can we talk.
As the political divide between men and women grows, men certainly face more social consequences, particularly to their mental health. However, these consequences often lead them to toxic community hubs. Those who subscribe to the manosphere ideology resent that women are not empathetic to them while refusing to offer the respect and empathy they demand. And instead of encouraging self-improvement among men, the current administration prefers to pile onto the manosphere and drag women further down.
Dear Future Doctor …
Believe me, I’ve internalized the hatred they gleefully spew. Frequently, I question my worth, my lovability, how much I’m wanted—not even just as a doctor, but as a woman. I remember past partners praising my accomplishments until they surpassed their own and even acquaintances completely writing me off as a romantic partner, like the guy from college who told me I was “too intimidating to date” because of my academic record.
Months ago, I started a second master’s degree and hid it. Outside of work, I told only my father and two close friends. Why? Because I was taught to feel ashamed of my accomplishments.
I know you’ve internalized it too. In the socialization of cerebral, ambitious women, there exists a tacit understanding that our intellect is attractive unless it overshadows the man standing next to us. Violating this clause of our social contract instantly makes us undesirable and unfeminine.
But don’t let them fool you; they wouldn’t expend energy putting us down if they felt secure. The data are clear. Women are not the ones falling behind or suffering from a national loneliness crisis. We are excelling in our professional lives while maintaining personal strength. Deep down, conservatives know this, and they relentlessly belittle our self-worth so we believe ourselves inferior.
We are not inferior. I’m not trying to convince the angry men of this—there’s clearly no winning there. I’m talking to you, the woman reading this.
I know you may become overwhelmed by imposter syndrome, exhausted and wondering, ‘Am I enough?’ I know because I am you. There are some experiences ubiquitous for women in medicine.
When the misogynists scream that you’re bitter, alone, bad mothers and partners, neglecting your natural role, think of the lives you’ve saved, of the little girls you’ve inspired, of the families you’ve helped. What could be more nurturing, selfless, and noble than that?
So apply to medical school, impudent young woman. You might become the next Dr. Maria I. New. You also might not, but of this I am certain: We belong in medicine. The petty hatred of conservative misogyny may manipulate us emotionally to doubt ourselves, but the hard numbers don’t lie.
The views above reflect mine alone, and not any institution with which I am affiliated. I’d like to acknowledge the following physicians who inspired this piece: Antonia New, MD; Mohini Dasari, MD, MS; Marsha Wittink, MD, MBE; Sarah Gibson, MD; Aditi Misra, MD, Ph.D.
