Michael Smitho

Composition II

            Finding national statistics on African-American female physicians in the 1950’s is very difficult. In 1960, only 6.8% of practicing physicians and 5.7% of medical school graduates were women (More & Greer, 2000, p. 6). African-American women are a minority population and faced discrimination based on both race and gender. In the 1950’s, an average of 1.7% of the practicing women doctors in the United States were African-American (More & Greer, 2000, p. 8). This number rose to only 5.3% in the 1980’s (More & Greer, 2000, p. 8). The number of African-American women doctors in the 1950’s is so small as to be almost an anomaly at well under 1%.

References

More, E.S., & Greer, M. (2000, Winter). American Women Physicians in 2000: A History in

            Progress. JAMWA, 55(1), 6-9. Retrieved March 12, 2007, from http://escholarship.

            umassmed.edu/lib_articles/49.