Women in Ortho?

Here are some stats from my experience with women in ortho. My home school 2 female residents out of 15, none in the upcoming class. At the place I'm starting my residency-2 females out of 20, none in the upcoming class. When I rotated at the site that I ended up matching I was on ortho one of the females (she was the intern). She was good. Knowledgeable, friendly, tried to teach, etc. It's about how well you fit in. Ortho tends to be a place of guys, most attendings are male. It can be intimidating to some female med students especially given the locker room nature that can be ortho at times. It personally doesn't matter to me. I, and most others will agree, just want to work with people who are helpful, easy to get along with, and will go to battle with you. Doesn't matter male or female.

Oh my goodness here we go again. Go back to the old forum and this topic was discussed ad nauseaum. Last i checked it was in the "beat the dead horse" link.


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Yes, let's not beat this one to death again!! Once was enough. :smokin:

I have no wants to partake in such a heated discussion; however, I have located some stats on minority and women friendly program acceptance rates. They can be found at . Hope this helps
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mmm, sorry about that. i didn't see that thread scrolling through old posts - nor did i realize how quickly a topic could deteriorate beyond the point of useful information.
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OrthoChick,

Check your "My Messages", I sent you my email address. Feel free to email me to discuss this topic. In some respects, being a woman in orthopaedics is no longer an issue AT ALL. In others it is still (despite our current millenium) a HUGE issue. Unlike urology (one of the other "old boys clubs"), women are still at a disadvantage in matching, despite the fact that it may actually help you get interviews. I know of programs that finally broke down and took a woman, hating the idea, but ended up loving it because the chicks they got rocked. There are others that had one bad experience with a chick and have a hard time with it (as if there were never any bad guy residents out there). Other places have had a long tradition of having women and it is non-issue. Still others have dug their heels into the ground and won't take a woman until they are forced to do so, and if they did take one, made sure her life was h$%&. It is, however, the COOLEST way to make a living, male or female!!! So don't be discouraged.

My two cents

I know of many programs that are open to the idea of having a female resident, they are just looking for the right one that will fit in. I know for a fact that Summa and Greenville who are both fantastic programs with a history of not having women are in fact open to the idea and are looking for the right fit. In fact, I spoke with the chairman at Greenville and he told me they ranked several women very high and was surprised when they didnt match a female in this year. Do still apply to programs that have historically not taken women. Other female friendly programs I ran across or heard about:
Wichita, Atlanta Medical Ctr, U of Pitt, Akron General, Allegheny General, Duke, Iowa. As a generality, I found most of the big academic programs friendlier to women than some of the smaller community programs. Just a final word of advice, to all females applying, dont be discouraged by the many pig-headed macho's out there, hold your ground because you are as good and often better than many of the guys out there. In fact, there are a lot of guys I ran across that were a lot smaller and weaker than many of the fit females I came across the interview trail. However, for the ladies, please dont go out there thinking you have something to prove. Just be cool, laid back, and we will appreciate you much more and dont be so sensitive when we do joke around, I guess it is a part of being around testosterone driven men all day. Good luck to all :pimp:

From the places I interviewed:

Women friendly:
CWRU (my residency program): very women friendly, although there are none in our intern class.
Mayo, Harvard, CCF

Not so women friendly (I don't know if I'd apply if I were a woman):
Indiana, Henry Ford, Medical Colllege of Ohio, Cincinnati, MSU-Kalamazoo, Kentucky

Indifferent:
Howard, Loyola

As from the prior "dead-horse" thread, people know that I'm all for any one matching ortho who "deserves" to match ortho. But I don't agree that a woman should apply to a program that has been "traditionally" not friendly to females. It probably would be a waste of your time and money. Besides, you don't want to go somewhere where you're not wanted.

add to the list u washington in seattle (women residents and attendings).

another aspect from Bonejock's comment

Many programs are pressured to have a female in their program and for the ladies out there, I still think it is NOT a waste of time and money to apply. Granted if you get more than one interview on the same date, choose the program that is historically "friendlier" to estrogen, it is just common sense. My point is that it is just as competitive for females as males to get into Ortho, so just apply then see what happens. The way I approached it was that it was once in a lifetime move and I didnt want to sell myself short when it came to my career, so I applied to a butt load of programs, then I had more control over which programs that I really wanted to check out when I got the interviews. It allowed me to have more control over a mostly out of control process. Good luck :pimp:

thanks for the insight into programs - i don't really have the desire to waste my time and money applying somewhere that i don't havea shot at getting in, so those are good names to know, too!