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(from left) Women’s History Month Committee chair Mara Meyer Epstein, ScD; Luanne Thorndyke, MD, vice provost for faculty affairs; Women’s Faculty Committee co-chair Jill Zitzewitz, PhD; Deborah Plummer, PhD, vice chancellor for diversity and inclusion; keynote speaker Ellen More, PhD; and Women’s Professional Committee co-chairs Patricia Levenson and Justine Ashley. |
UMass Medical School historian and professor emeritus Ellen More, PhD, zeroed in on how women helped shape the school’s destiny at the 2018 celebration of Women’s History Month. Dr. More delivered the keynote address, “Nevertheless She Persisted: Women in American Medicine—and at UMass Medical School,” at the annual event held March 27.
“The story of women faculty, and women in academic medicine, echoes the history of UMass Medical School,” said More. “They are both stories of persistence.”
She discussed the obstacles women have faced—and overcome—in the United States in the fields of medicine and biomedical sciences. Drawing on the research for her book on the history of UMass Medical School, she recalled how professional women at UMMS took up the challenge of overcoming gender disparities. From establishing the Women’s Issues Committee in 1992, to current efforts across administrative and academic departments, More noted that the percentages of women in senior faculty positions and with tenure at UMMS now exceed national averages for academic medicine.
“None of this occurred by chance,” she said. “Women faculty at UMMS have benefited from strong leadership and mentoring, as well as the indispensable commitment to equity by the school’s academic leaders. There’s such a commitment to working together that we are able to make progress and, indeed, beat the odds.”
A medical historian specializing in the history of the American medical profession, women physicians and medical education, More is the author of Beating the Odds: The University of Massachusetts Medical School, A History 1962-2012. She is also the founder of the Office of Medical History and Archives at the Lamar Soutter Library, and served for many years on the Women’s Faculty Committee.
Each attendee received a copy of the expanded hardcover edition of Beating the Odds, with More on hand to sign them.
The event was sponsored by the Office of Diversity & Inclusion, the Office of Faculty Affairs, the Professional Women’s Committee and the Women’s Faculty Committee.
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