title: Female enrollment in colleges of osteopathic medicine: five years and five percentage points behind.
abstract: An estimated one fifth of graduates of the colleges of osteopathic medicine (COMs) before 1910 were women. However, the proportion of women declined after 1900, so that by 1969, less than 3% of osteopathic medical students were women. Dramatic gains have been made in the past 25 years: for the 1993-1994 academic year, women made up 35% of all osteopathic medical students. Although these gains seem impressive, allopathic medical school enrollment comprised 40% women during the same academic year (5 percentage points higher than in osteopathic medical schools). Allopathic medical schools have had significantly more women enrolled every year between academic years 1969-1970 and 1993-1994. In academic year 1988-1989, allopathic medical schools already had an enrollment that consisted of 35% female students, a percentage that COMs would first reach 5 years later. Based on these findings, enrollment of women in COMs is 5 years and 5 percentage points behind that of allopathic medical schools.
authors.affiliation: West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine, Lewisburg 24901, USA.
authors.forename: H H
authors.initials: HH
authors.lastname: Baker
mesh_terms: D004501:Education, Medical; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010021:Osteopathic Medicine / Q000193:education; D010822:Physicians, Women / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D017678:Sex Distribution; D000078329:Workforce