Higher education

Gender shifts at med school

A majority of medical students at the University of South Florida are female, mirroring national trends.

TAMPA - Heather Carpenter walked into her first medical school class Monday morning, looked around and realized to her surprise that she was in a majority - the female majority.

Women medical students now outnumber men at the University of South Florida College of Medicine, 224 to 219. The shift marks a first for the school, but it mirrors national trends that show female students overtaking men in many academic fields.

"It's about time," said Carpenter, 25, a first-year medical student at USF. "We have to get rid of the good old boy network and make it a good old everybody network."

Steven Specter, associate dean for admissions and student affairs at USF's medical school, attributes the rise in female enrollment to a combination of factors.

He said more women than ever are applying, bolstered by the deterioration of gender barriers both real and imagined. Specter said he also thinks some men might be opting for other professions, believing medicine has become a less profitable and more litigious endeavor.

Or perhaps the change is because the pipeline of students that feeds medical schools has become predominantly female.

Last year, women made up 57 percent of the undergraduates at Florida's 11 public universities. They made up 54 percent of the state's graduate students.

Those numbers are even more tilted at USF, where women last year accounted for almost 60 percent of undergraduates and 61.5 percent of graduate students.

For most of the last few decades, when the gender shift took root, Florida's medical schools remained stubbornly male.

In 1971, for example, women filled only 13 percent of the seats at USF's medical school. The numbers were also low at the University of Florida, where women accounted for 40 percent of the medical school enrollment in 1994.

The tables finally turned at UF last year, when females edged males - 396 to 393.

The incoming medical school class at USF - which has 70 women and 50 men - marks the second female-majority class in the school's history. The first came in 2002. But not until Monday were the scales tipped throughout the school.

The news brought mostly smiles and shrugs from students around the school Monday, many of whom said it was no surprise.

"I thought it already was (majority female)," said Luke Stephenson, 26, a second-year medical student. He smiled when asked if that was a positive. "Of course it's good," he said. "Would you want to be in a class full of guys?"

While some male students found delight in being surrounded by women, most women found gratification.

"It really does make me proud," said Lisa Moody, 23, a second-year student who had just learned of USF's female majority. "We've fought really hard for our rights. It's amazing to see the progress we've made. It's good to see the diversity."

Administrators and students agreed the new female majority won't make much difference in the classroom. There still are mountains of books to study, lectures to attend and labs to complete. It doesn't really matter if the seats are occupied by men or women.

"They don't teach us as boys or girls," said second-year student David Schrift, 22. "They teach us as students."

Specter shares that sentiment.

"Medicine is looking for bright people," he said, "and it's gender blind."

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