More than five decades after being assigned to read “Boys in White,” a sociological study of male medical students at the University of Kansas, KU School of Medicine-Wichita professor emerita Anne Walling, M.B., Ch.B., FFPHM, is helping some KU female medical students from 1944 through 1975 have their say in an upcoming book provisionally titled “The Girls in White.”

When “Boys in White” — based on interviews and observations of just the men in the class of 1958 — was published in 1961, it was hailed as a pioneering sociological study on the experience of being a medical student and evolving into a physician.

The book became required reading in some medical schools, including the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, where Walling was one of 10 women in a class of 90 medical students.

While that 1958 KU medical class had included a few women, the book’s authors — led by sociologist Howard Becker who was known for doing groundbreaking studies — had determined there weren’t enough women to be included.

“The Girls in White” according to Walling and co-authors Kari Nilsen, Ph.D., and Morgan Gillam, M.D., is an opportunity for KU female medical students from 1944 through 1975 to tell their stories of choosing what was then considered a nontraditional career.

Nilsen is a volunteer education associate professor with the Department of Family & Community Medicine, and Gillam is a KUSM-Wichita family medicine resident at Ascension Via Christi.

For almost all the years from 1944 to 1974, women comprised around 10% of the medical classes at KU; one year only two women were in the class, Walling said.

In the mid-1970s, there was a dramatic shift in women being accepted and enrolled in medical schools across the country. A historical timeline on women in medicine on the Association of American Medical Colleges website notes that those shifts can be attributed to the 1972 Title IX law prohibiting gender discrimination at schools receiving federal funding and the rise of women’s rights.

Telling their stories

At a recent KU School of Medicine-Wichita annual event honoring women physicians, Walling, Nilsen and Gillam gave a slideshow presentation about their “The Girls in White” project.

Thirty-eight alumnae from 1944 through 1975 — including a female member of the 1958 class who joked she was getting “revenge” in telling her story after being overlooked in Becker’s study — were interviewed as part of “The Girls in White.”

The majority of those interviewed (84%) grew up in Kansas; about half were from more urban areas, while 25% grew up on farms and another 24% were raised in smaller cities.

Their educational backgrounds were quite varied, Walling pointed out, from a two-room schoolhouse to public schools and convent schools. More than half responded that either one or both of their parents had a college degree, while 35% indicated a parent worked in the health care field.

As the authors completed qualitative analysis of their findings and anecdotal stories, there were several times that Gillam recalled responding “OMG,” she said at the presentation.

The women’s stories revealed various levels of inequalities and bias, such as the bookstore carrying only men’s uniforms, or not having sleeping or changing areas for women students. They were often expected to utilize the nursing dorms and changing areas. One overt example of sexism was the 1969 medical school yearbook with a “Playdoc” theme.

The stories, however, also reveal a great deal more than overcoming gender inequalities, Walling said.

“The main themes were the tenacity, resilience, intelligence, dedication and humor of these women,” Walling said. “They all had a genuine love of medicine and had all learned to navigate multiple challenges and obstacles over very long careers.

“They got mad, they got even and if they found a problem, they navigated it,” Walling said.

Audience members at the presentation included two alumnae who had participated in the “The Girls in White” interviews — Kathryn Graves, M.D., a now-retired dermatologist from Hutchinson, and Martha Housholder, M.D., who has been with The Dermatology Clinic in Wichita since 1978 — along with women who have followed in their footsteps.

“It’s empowering and inspirational since these women are our mentors,” said Tessa Rohrberg, M.D., an assistant professor in the Department of Family & Community Medicine.

Another attendee, Tracy Williams, M.D., an associate professor with the KUSM-Wichita family medicine residency program at Ascension Via Christi, agreed.

“I think it shows how far we have come,” she said.

The first manuscript of “The Girls in White” is due to the publisher in December.