Celebrate Today and Pave the Way for Tomorrow – National Women Physicians Day
To recognize, honor, and celebrate female physicians and their contributions to healthcare, February 3rd has been declared National Women Physicians Day. This date also marks the birthday of Elizabeth Blackwell, the first female physician in the U.S., who opened the door for the hundreds of thousands of female physicians who came after her.
Communities around the nation are asked to observe this holiday to celebrate how far we have come as a society in empowering females to choose careers in medicine, and to recognize the progress we still must make to support the development and equality of women in medicine. Female doctors are an integral part of our patient-centered healthcare system, yet today females only make up a third of the physician workforce. In a traditionally male-dominated field, female physicians often face challenges that their male counterparts do not, including unequal pay, gender bias, sexual harassment, and a workplace that tends to be inflexible to the needs of women who wish to have families and a medical career.
During National Women Physicians Day, efforts will center around honoring the physicians who paved the way for women in medicine, increasing awareness of the sacrifices and obstacles female physicians must overcome, inspiring the future generation of female physicians and pushing our society towards greater equality of the sexes within this field.
Physician Moms Group (PMG) was founded in November 2014 by Dr. Hala Sabry in an effort to bring together women physicians, who are also parents, so that they can collaborate and support each other while sharing their medical expertise in an open forum. The PMG mission is to provide resources, a platform to network, and an opportunity to share information with like- minded individuals. The PMG network includes over 65,000 women physicians of all specialties across the globe. For more information, visit mypmg.com.
