Created by the Arthur H. Aufses, Jr. MD Archives for the Institute for Health Equity Research (IHER), Office of Gender Equity in Science and Medicine
150 years ago in 1872, the Medical Board was formed and worked to create a House Staff program. This marks the beginning of medical education at Mount Sinai Hospital. Two women had the highest scores on the House Staff examinations. Excerpt from the 1872 board minutes reads: "From Nov 4 to Nov 10 seventeen persons applied to Dr Percy for the position of first and second assistant physician. Several of these persons were examined by Dr. Percy and advised by him to withdraw their application as they were not yet far enough advanced in their studies. Dr. A.A. Angell was examined by the [Committee] and recommended to the Board of Directors as fully competent to take the position of 1st assistant. Dr. E.B. Phelps was also examined and recommended for the position of Apothecary. Dr. Angell & Dr. Phelps were both graduates of the Women's Medical College of the N.Y. Infirmary. The Secretary personally presented the nomination of Dr. Ann A. Angell and Dr. Eliza B. Phelps and stated that they had passed very much the best examinations of any applicants." In all, 17 people took the house staff exams, and some did not pass.
Josephine Walter, MD graduated from the House Staff program at The Mount Sinai Hospital in 1886. The Hospital believed that she was the first woman to graduate from a formal two-year internship in United States. Appointed House Physician for Gynecological Service, she specialized in caring for women and served on the staff of many New York hospitals. She also lectured to the students of The Mount Sinai Hospital School of Nursing. In 1906-1907 she was the President of the Women's Medical Association of New York City. Dr. Walter served in the war and practiced medicine for 53 years.
Sophie Rabinoff, MD, a graduate of the Women's Medical College of Philadelphia, became the first female intern (as opposed to non-resident extern) on the house staff after "triumphing over thirty men in a competitive examination." She was initially told by the hospital that women were not eligible for appointment, but the hospital later agreed to allow her to sit for the examination, at which she came in first place.
Dr. Lilian K.P. Farrar was appointed a Junior Attending Surgeon at Woman’s Hospital, the first woman ever to receive such an appointment. She became Attending Surgeon in 1927 and Consulting Surgeon in 1935. Dr. Farrar served as an Assistant Professor at the Cornell Medical School from 1918 until 1953. She was instrumental in establishing internships for women in Woman’s Hospital in 1920. A graduate of Boston University and Cornell Medical School (1900) she died in 1962 at the age of 90.
Women were once again admitted as interns at Mount Sinai Hospital, reversing a 1910 policy.
1932 marked the first Alumni meeting that women alumni were invited to attend.
116 nurses from the Class of 1922 to the Class of 1942 served in the Third General Hospital during World War Two. Stationed on several fronts, Mount Sinai staffed converted a 15th century monastery in Vauclaire, Dordogne, France into a 500 bed Hospital. With depleted staffing on the home front, student nurses volunteered, covering thousands of shifts.
Mrs. Harriet (Donald F.) Bush was elected President of the Roosevelt Hospital. She was the first woman to be elected to this post in the history of the Hospital. She joined the Board in 1947 and served as a member of the Board's Executive Committee in 1952 and Vice President and Co-chairman of the Executive Committee in 1955. Mrs. Bush was one of the original founders of the Volunteer Committee when it was formed in 1932.
Charlotte Friend, Ph.D. was the first woman to be named a full Professor in the new Mount Sinai School of Medicine. Dr. Friend was a noted microbiologist who made important contributions to the study of cancer. After graduating in 1944, she entered the Navy where she was assigned to help direct a hematology laboratory in California. Afterward, she began graduate work in microbiology at Yale University. By the time she received her doctorate in 1950, Dr. Friend already had a position in the laboratory of Dr. Alice Moore at the Sloan-Kettering Institute in New York City. She wrote about many things, including support for Israel, against anti-abortion measures, and in defense of women's rights. In 1971, Dr. Friend published another landmark paper, this one titled "Hemoglobin synthesis in murine virus-induced leukemic cells in vitro: Stimulation of erythroid differentiation by dimethyl sulfoxide." The co-authors were William Scher, J.G. Holland, and Toru Sato. This paper described research on leukemia cells that had been made to differentiate, or take another step in the maturation process to become erythroid cells, thus stopping their cancer-like multiplication. In all, she published 163 papers, 70 of which she wrote by herself or with one other author.
Doris Siegel (1914-1971) was the director of the Mount Sinai Hospital Social Service Department from 1954 to 1971. She was made the first Edith J. Baerwald Professor of Community Medicine (Social Work) in 1969. Her inauguration for this position represented two large firsts; this was the first endowed social work chair at a medical school in the United States and the first woman in an endowed professor position at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine.
As the Director of Emergency and Ambulatory Surgical Services, Laurie Rosenthal, MD is the first woman ever to hold a full-time general surgeon appointment at Mount Sinai.
Dr. Terry Ann Krulwich becomes first woman Dean of the Medical School. She served as the Dean of the Graduate School. As of 2022, she has worked at Mount Sinai for over 50 years.
Brenda Shank, MD, Ph.D. appointed Chairman of Radiotherapy. This department's name was later changed to Radiation Oncology. Dr. Shank was the first woman chairman at Mount Sinai.
For the first time, more women than men graduated from the Medical School, also a first in NY State.
Women Faculty Group was formed to address issues of concern to faculty members of Mount Sinai School of Medicine including pay equity, discrimination, participation by women on decision-making bodies at Mount Sinai, limitations on career advancement, parenting and schedule flexibility issues, and the underlying sexism that informs these issues. To fulfill its mission, the Women Faculty Group provided a platform in which appropriate action was taken to promote positions endorsed by the membership and provided a forum for mutual support, networking, education, and discussion. Sandra Masur was the last elected Women Faculty Group President, and she served 1998-2004 until the Women Faculty Group’s goals and mentoring efforts became the basis for the first Mount Sinai School of Medicine Office for Faculty Development for all faculty (with Masur as its first Associate Dean). In 2008, the Office for Women’s Careers was established with Masur as Director to continue efforts in support of advancing women trainees and faculty. In 2019 a new Office for Gender Equity with an expanded portfolio, institutional commitment, and impact and has incorporated OWC as an integral component.
Dr. Millicent Sutton, Director of the Comprehensive Sickle Cell Program at St. Luke’s-Roosevelt, was honored by The Network Journal as one of the “25 Most Influential Black Women in business.” “Under Dr. Sutton’s Leadership, the Sickle Cell Program has become an important part of the St. Luke’s campus,” says Richard Daines, MD, President and CEO of St. Luke’s-Roosevelt. “Her staff, which includes physicians, nurses, social workers and genetic counselors, have provided great relief to patients.”
Office for Women’s Careers at Mount Sinai School of Medicine was created, with Dr. Sandra Masur as its Director.
Mothers of Mount Sinai (MOMS) program celebrates 20th anniversary. More than 250 13 to 21 year old mothers participated in the MOMS program. In a spring 2009 survey of MOMS Summer Employment and Training Program attendees, nearly 84% were employed. More than 83% had completed some college, compared to only 10% of women in similar situations not involved in MOMS, and 33% completed college, compared to only 3% of teen mothers in the general population.
Mount Sinai School of Medicine created a Diversity Council to improve recruitment and retention of women and underrepresented faculty.
Dr. Donna Mendes, Senior Attending Vascular Surgery at MSSLR, is interviewed for Library of Congress HistoryMakers Archive. She was the first Black woman to be board certified in Vascular Surgery by the American Board of Surgery in 1991.
Women in Medical Scientist Training Program (WiMSTP) was founded in 2015, a student-run organization, their aim is to advocate for and support the success of women through mentorship and educational efforts in the Medical Scientist Training Program at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.
The Mount Sinai Center for Transgender Medicine and Surgery was established, located at the Institute for Advanced Medicine. The first surgical procedure took place in March, 2016 at Mount Sinai Beth Israel. Marci Bowers, MD, who joined Mount Sinai Beth Israel at this time, is the first “woman worldwide to hold a personal transgender history while performing transgender surgery”. Mount Sinai is first in NYC to offer gender affirmation surgery.
The Women’s Health Research Institute at ISMMS was announced; Elizabeth A. Howell, MD, MPP served as the first Director. The Institute brings together many disciplines to build cutting-edge translational research programs that makes Mount Sinai a national thought leader in women’s and reproductive medicine. Their aim is to optimize quality of care for women across the life span and to narrow gaps in treatment and outcomes in underserved populations. As a research Institute, their focus is to transform women’s health by advancing science, training the next generation of scientific leaders in women’s health, and promoting breakthroughs in clinical care. In 2018, the Institute was named the Blavatnik Family Women’s Health Research Institute.
In 2020, the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai launched the Office of Gender Equity in Science and Medicine with Dr. Carol Horowitz serving as the inaugural Dean of the office. The Office of Gender Equity strives to create a culture and climate where all students, trainees, and faculty can succeed regardless of their gender identity or expression.
Dr. Rachel Levine was named the new assistant secretary of health at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Her confirmation made her the first openly transgender individual to be approved by the Senate as well as the highest-ranking transgender federal official. She completed her training in pediatrics at the Mount Sinai Medical Center, followed by a fellowship in Adolescent Medicine at Mount Sinai, and was on the faculty of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine. She then practiced pediatrics and adolescent medicine in Pennsylvania ad served as Pennsylvania's Physician General from 2015-2017.
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