An Interview with Dr. Estelle Ramey

AN INTERVIEW WITH DR. ESTELLE RAMEY* ESTELLE RAMEYl Q. Dr.Ramey, as one ofthefew womenprofessorsatthe Georgetown Medical Center, what do you consider to be unique to the career problems ofwomen doctors ? A. This interview may turn out to sound like a tract for Women's Liberation. Let me, therefore, enter this disclaimer now: I really believe that men are just as capable as women in medicine. But your question underscores the basis of the problem for women. No one ever refers to "men doctors" or "menscientists" yet I am always identified as a "woman scientist". This may have certain rueful advantages. As Samuel Johnson said ofa woman preacher: "It is rather like a dog walking on its hind legs, merely doing it at all is remarkable". The unique problem for a woman is to be taken seriously. Q. Don't you think that attitudes toward women in the medical sciences are changing rapidly? A. No. Cultural biases never change rapidly. Stereotypes are bred in the bone ofa society and the stereotype ofthe woman doctor is a horse- * Reprinted with permission from the Georgetown Medical Bulletin, August 1970. t Dr. Ramey was born in Detroit, Michigan, just as women in this country were about to get the right to vote. She earned her doctorate in Physiology (University ofChicago) after a marriage and two children. Her academic career started as a Teaching Fellow in Chemistry at Queens College in 1938, continued during the war at the University ofTennessee in Knoxville, and after the war, at the University ofChicago School ofMedicine and the Medical Research Institute ofMichael Reese Hospital in Chicago. She was named Mergler Scholar in Physiology at the University ofChicago and was a United States Public Health Service Post Doctoral Fellow, then Assistant Professor of Physiology. She came to Georgetown Medical Center as an Assistant Professor of Physiology in 1956 and is now a Professor in that Department. Dr. Ramey is a member ofPhi Beta Kappa, Sigma Xi, the American Physiological Society, the Endocrine Society, the Diabetes Association and many other scientific and professional organizations. She is on the Board ofDirectors ofthe Washington Heart Association and was elected recently as the first woman Vice-President ofthat organization. Her husband, James T. Ramey is a distinguishedattorney and a member ofthe United States Atomic Energy Commission. Their son is a physician with the U.S. Indian Health Serviceand their daughter is a student at Yale Law School. 424 Estelle Ramey · An Interview Perspectives in Biology and Medicine · Spring 1971 faced, flat-chested female in supphosewho sublimatesher sex starvation in a passionate embrace ofthe New EnglandJournal ofMedicine and cyclic AMP. It takes considerable determination for a young girl to ignore this threat toherimage as a desirablewomanand only apitifully smallnumber ofwomen risk it. It's enough to make a cat cry. Q. How doyou squaresuch a statement with the very large numbers ofwomen who aregetting college degrees today? A. This is one ofthe ironies ofour educational history. We all encourage our daughters to go to college. That's where the best husbands are to be found. We simultaneously discourage our daughters from taking their education too seriously. That'showyouscare away thebesthusbands. This is not just a fiendish male attitude. Mothers as well as fathers are made uneasy by a markedly intellectual daughter. "My son, the Doctor" is a matter for unrestrained pride. "My daughter, the Doctor" requires an anxious explanation. And so, alot ofbright, partially educated women are persuaded that they have Hobson's choice as regards marriage and careers. Understandably, most opt for marriage in the mistaken notion that it is mutually exclusive with professional achievement. It is not. Q. Even assuming that a qualified college woman wants to take such "risks", isn't it harderfor her to be admitted to a medical school in this country? A. Curiously, our statistics do not bear this out. Medical school admissions committees have not had to search their consciences about female discrimination. In fact, the percentage of women accepted into medical school has for many years been correlated exactly with the percentage of women applying. It may even be a little weighted in favor ofthe number ofwomen accepted compared to the number applying. In 1929 women...