¹ “La mujer médico en el siglo XIX,” La medicina científica 2 (February 1, 1889), p. 46. An 1889 edition of this same journal noted that there were a total of 16 female doctors in France by that date. Schultze officially received her degree on December 13, 1888. See “Mujeres médicas,” in La medicina científica 2 (May 1, 1889), p. 144. All translations by author.

² There is no doubt that the professionalization of medicine in nineteenth-century Mexico ended midwife dominance in the birthing chamber, especially since colonial surgeons “appear to have disdained engaging in [midwifery] and hence relegated it to the hands of midwives.” See León, Nicolás, La obstetricia en México: Notas bibliográficas, étnicas, históricas, documentarias, y críticas de los orígenes hasta el año 1910 (Mexico City, 1910), p. 207.Google Scholar

³ Hernández Sáenz, Luz María, Learning to Heal: The Medical Profession in Colonial Mexico, 1767–1831 (New York: Peter Lang, 1997), p. 205 Google Scholar; Carrillo, Ana María, “Profesiones sanitarias y lucha de poderes en el México del siglo XIX,” Asclepio 5:2 (1998), p. 167.Google Scholar

⁴ Bogdan, Janet, “Care or Cure? Childbirth Practices in Nineteenth Century America,” Feminist Studies 4 (1978), p. 97 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed; Towler, Jean and Bramali, Joan, Midwives in Society and History (London: Croom Helm, 1986),Google Scholar lx-x; Ortiz, Teresa, “From Hegemony to Subordination: Midwives in Early Modern Spain,” in Marland, Hilary, ed. The Art of Midwifery: Early Modern Midwives in Europe (London: Routledge, 1993), p. 95.Google Scholar

⁵ Evidence for this work is gathered from medical archives in Mexico City and comes from the following sources in order of importance: Archivo Histórico de la Facultad de Medicina, Mexico City, (hereafter AHFM); Archivo Histórico, Mexico City, (hereafter AH); Archivo Histórico: Centro de Estudios Sobre la Universidad, Mexico City, (hereafter AH: CESU); Archivo Histórico, Mexico City, (hereafter AH); and Archivo General de la Nación, Mexico City, (hereafter AGN). Each state licensed its own professionals according to local regulations and needs. For the names of medical establishments outside of Mexico City that offered courses in professional midwifery after independence, see Carillo, Ana María, “Nacimiento y muerte de una professión: Las parteras tituladas en México,” Dynamis 19 (1999), pp. 170,Google Scholar 175; and Staples, Anne, “La Constitución del Estado Nacional,” in Historia de las profesiones en México, Gurza, Francisco Arce, et. al., eds. (Mexico City: Colegio de México, 1982), pp. 93–111.Google Scholar

⁶ In her study of birth practices in Braunschweig from 1750 to 1850, Mary Lindemann suggested that “the tyranny of an Anglo-Saxon model” had been imposed on midwife studies. See her, “Professionals? Sisters? Rivals? Midwives in Braunschweig, 1750–1800,” in Marland, Art of Midwifery, p. 176. For another study that demonstrates the inappropriateness of applying a British and U.S. model of midwifery to non-Anglo countries, see Filippini, Nadia Maria, “The Church, the State and Childbirth: The Midwife in Italy during the Eighteenth Century,” in Marland, Art of Midwifery, pp. 152–175.Google Scholar

⁷ These same school records do not detail the socio-economic backgrounds of the students themselves, though it is likely that a degree in obstetrics attracted the daughters of financially secure families. As such, obstetrics did not open the path to a medical career for all midwives. Untitled midwives undoubtedly continued to provide medical attention to the majority of pregnant women. For information on untitled Mexican midwives and their activities during the colonial period, see Penyak, Lee M., “Mid-wives and Legal Medicine in Mexico, 1740–1846,” Journal of Hispanic Higher Education 1:3 (2002), pp. 251–266.CrossRefGoogle Scholar For the activities and contributions of modern-day untitled midwives in Mexico, see Parra, Pilar Alicia, “Midwives in the Mexican Health System,” Soc. Sci. Med. 37:11 (1993), pp. 1321–1329.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed

⁸ Pureza de sangre implied that someone was of pure Spanish and Catholic ‘blood’ and free of Jewish, Moorish, and African ancestry. Rodríguez, Martha Eugenia provides an overview of Mexican medical training in “Escuela Nacional de Medicina,” in Encyclopedia of Mexico: History, Society & Culture, vol. 1 Google Scholar, Werner, Michael S., ed. (Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers, 1977), pp. 458 –461.Google Scholar FOF descriptions of the responsibilities of the Protomedicato, see Lanning, John Tate, The Royal Protomedicato: The Regulation of the Medical Professions in the Spanish Empire, TePaske, John Jay, ed. (Durham: Duke University Press, 1985);Google Scholar and Sáenz, Hernández, Learning to Heal, pp. 2–3,Google Scholar 21–54. Colonial certification for midwives is discussed in Francisco de Flores, Asis y Troncoso, , Historia de la medicina en México desde la época de los Indios hasta la presente [1886], vol. 2 (Mexico City: Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social, 1982), p. 361.Google Scholar

⁹ Rodríguez, Juan María, “Breves apuntes sobre la obstetricia en México: Tesis sostenida por Juan María Rodríguez como candidato para la plaza de adjunto a la cátedra de clínica de obstetricia de la Escuela de Medicina” (Mexico City: Imprenta de José M. Lara, 1869), p. 6.Google Scholar Sáenz, Hernández, Learning to Heal, pp. 206–207,Google Scholar 225(n.71). This writer found an additional midwife certified by the Protomedicato in 1828. See AHFM, Protomedicato, leg. 13, exp. 24 (María Atanacia Recuero).

¹⁰ Staples, , “La Constitución del Estado Nacional,” p. 98;Google Scholar Olmstede, Antonio Escobar, “Education: 1821–89,” in Encyclopedia of Mexico: History, Society & Culture, vol. 1. (Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers, 1997), p. 438.Google Scholar

¹¹ AHFM, Escuela de Medicina y Alumnos, leg. 188, exp. 4, fol. 123.

¹² The official name of the medical establishment changed frequently during the nineteenth century: Protomedicato until 1833, Scientific Medical Establishment from 1833 to 1834, Medical College from 1834 to 1842, School of Medicine from 1842 to 1854, and National School of Medicine from 1842 to 1914. Even after 1854, however, many doctors continued to refer to this institution as the School of Medicine and that usage was adopted as a standard in this article. The medical school has been known as the Faculty of Medicine since 1914. See Rodríguez, , “Escuela Nacional de Medicina,” p. 460. Diccionario Porrúa de historia, biografía y geografía de México, 6th ed. (Mexico City: Editorial Porrúa, 1995),Google Scholar pp. 79–80, 1506–1507. The first director of the school was Casimiro Liceaga. The first director of Operations and Obstetrics was Pedro del Villar. AHFM, Escuela de Medicina y Alumnos, leg. 188, exp. 4, fol. 123.

¹³ de Mendoza, Manuel Hurtado, Suplemento al diccionario de medicina y cirugía, vol. 3 (Madrid: Imprenta de Brugada, 1823), pp. 239–240.Google Scholar

¹⁴ Rodríguez, , “Breves apuntes,” p. 5.Google Scholar

¹⁵ AH: CESU, Escuela Nacional de Medicina, caja 6, exp. 1, fols. 1–2. Mexican doctors throughout the nineteenth century made blatantly misogynistic statements. Flores y Troncoso's four-volume work published in 1886 is filled with sexist comments against women in general and midwives in particular. He describes colonial midwives as “ignorant and vulgar” and states that Mexican women were especially inept at practicing medicine because of their exaggerated imagination and emotional state; he suggests instead that they dedicate their efforts to the arts and the household. See Flores, y Troncoso, , Historia de la medicina en México, vol. 2, pp. 359–60Google Scholar and vol. III, p. 265.

¹⁶ AH: Fondo Salubridad Pública, Sección: Ejercicio de la Medicina, caja 1, exp. 32. El mosquito mexicano 9:37 (May 7, 1841), p. 1. Male doctors who dedicated their efforts to obstetrics also lamented that the “study of this part of science has been viewed by many with the greatest contempt.” See Villagrán, Jesús, “Breves consideraciones sobre los principales cuidados que deben suministrarse a la mujer durante el parto y el puerperio: Tesis que para el examen general de medicina, cirujía (sic) y obstetricia presenta al jurado calificador” (Mexico City: José María Sandoval, Imp., 1881), p. 7.Google Scholar

¹⁷ León, , Obstetricia en México, p. 233.Google Scholar

¹⁸ Cazeaux, Paulin, Tratado teórico y práctico de obstetricia, 9th ed. (Madrid: Imprenta de los Señores Rojas, 1876);Google Scholar Rodríguez, Juan María, Guía clínica del arte de los partos, 3rd ed. (Mexico City: Imprenta de Francisco Díaz de León, 1885), pp. 261–64;Google Scholar Professors also required students at the School of Medicine to read the 1835 work of Jules Hatin. See his Cours complet d'accouchements et de maladies des femmes et des enfants, 10th ed. (Paris: Librairie de Crochard, 1835); AHFM, Escuela de Medicina y Alumnos, leg. 117, exp. 7, fols. 36, 38; AHFM, Documentos Rescatados, caja única, exp. 85, fol. 3.

¹⁹ Rubio, Romero, “Secretaria de Estado y del Despacho de Gobernación: Sección Primera,” 24 March 1892,Google Scholar Art. 2; Mercado, M.A., “Instrucciones para la práctica de la antisepsia en los partos, a las que deberán sujetarse las parteras en el ejercicio de su profesión,” March 1892, pp. 5–8.Google Scholar For an overview of obstetrics practices during the final decades of the nineteenth century, see Flores, y Troncoso, , Historia de la medicina en México, vol. 3, pp. 561–628.Google Scholar

²⁰ The 1890s continued to be a decade of important change in the field of obstetrics. An 1898 issue of Revista de la instrucción pública mexicana proposed adding a third year to midwife studies preceded by a two-year preparatory program. See “Proyecto de plan de estudios para la profesión de parteras,” Revista de la instrucción pública mexicana 3:3 (April 15, 1898), pp. 66–67, in AH: CESU, Escuela Nacional de Medicina, caja 18, exp. 7, fols. 114–115. The curriculum in 1898 included a third year of obstetrics. See AH: CESU, Escuela Nacional de Medicina y Asuntos de Alumnos (Sección II), caja 61, exp. 261, fol. 84.

²¹ AHFM, Protomedicato, leg. 31, exp. 30, fol.2; AHFM, Protomedicato, leg. 31, exp. 30, fols. 4–5.

²² Penal codes also prohibited midwives, doctors, phlebotomists, and other health care workers from participating in abortions, euthanasia, and infanticide. See, for example, Código penal del estado libre y soberano de Hidalgo (Mexico City: J. Gaspar de Alba, 1895), Arts. 531–557. Some midwives probably performed medical services that exceeded the limits placed upon their profession. In a 1781 trial, for example, a witness testified that Bárbara Rojas cut a small tumor from the lip of a patient. See AGN, Consejo Superior de Salubridad, leg. 15, exp. 19, fols. 1, 3, 8.

²³ AHFM: Protomedicato, Libro de las actas de los exámenes de obstetricia verificados en la Escuela de Medicina de México con arreglo al ordenamiento publicado por la excelentísima junta departamental en 12 de enero de 1842: Libro 41 (hereafter Libro 41).

²⁴ AHFM: Protomedicato, Libro 41, fols. 1–120.

²⁵ Registration for obstetrics classes in 1872 began as early as December “for students of medicine as well as for women who desire to dedicate themselves to the study of obstetrics.” See AHFM, Escuela de Medicina y Alumnos, leg. 234, exp. 6, fols. 8, 60. Registration from 1868 and 1870 took place in the month of May. See AHFM, Escuela de Medicina y Alumnos, leg. 135, exp. 37, fol. 10 and AHFM, Escuela de Medicina y Alumnos, leg. 137, exp. 33, title page. Beginning in the 1890s the school year went from January to October. See AH:CESU, Escuela Nacional de Medicina, caja 18, exp. 7, fol. 117.

²⁶ Grades received in obstetrics classes are located in the following AHFM, Protomedicato documents: leg. 33, exp. 4, fol. 10 (Gutiérrez); leg. 33, exp. 20, fol. 7 (Guardiola); leg. 33, exp. 6, fol. 4 (Ortiz); leg. 33, exp. 12, fol. 7 (Roldán); leg. 34, exp. 16, fol. 8 (Tello); leg. 34, exp. 15, fol. 8 (Deses); leg. 37, exp. 5, fol. 6 (Rivera); leg. 37, exp. 9, fol. 5 (Legorreta); leg. 37, exp. 26, fol. 2 (Barrientos); leg. 38, exp. 4, fol. 2 (Zuleta); leg. 39, exp. 10, fol. 5 (Rodríguez); leg. 39, exp. 12, fol. 8 (Castillo); leg. 39, exp. 13, fol. 9 (Córdoba); leg. 40, exp. 10, fol. 6 (Varas). The grades and the dates on which midwives took their examinations at the School of Medicine can be located in AHFM, Protomedicato, Libro 41. The cost of examinations varied: 4 pesos in 1844, 21 pesos in 1845, and 14 pesos in 1866. Students paid smaller fees for their yearly examinations. See AH:CESU, Escuela Nacional de Medicina y Asuntos de Alumnos (Sección II), caja 4, exp. 10, fols. 19,46; AHFM, Escuela de Medicina y Alumnos, leg. 110, exp. 2, fol. 54 and AHFM, Protomedicato, leg. 39, exp. 10, fol. 2.

²⁷ Documentation did not reveal a standardized grading policy for midwives. However, the grades that male medical students received were sometimes spelled-out, such as “bueno” rather than “B,” and this writer assumed that the same abbreviations were used for midwives. See AHFM, Protomedicato, leg. 56, exp. 47, fol. 5 and AH:CESU, Escuela Nacional de Medicina y Asuntos de Alumnos (Sección II), caja 28, exp. 106, fol. 3.

²⁸ AHFM: Protomedicato, Libro 41, fols. 1-120. The names of students listed in Table 1 were selected according to the “random start method” beginning with the 8th, followed by the 16th, 24th, etc.

²⁹ AHFM, Documentos Rescatados, caja única, exp. 289, fol. 1; AHFM, Documentos Rescatados, caja única, exp. 247, fol. 1.

³⁰ AHFM, Protomedicato, Libro 41, fols. 89, 98.

³¹ AHFM, Protomedicato, Libro 41, fols. 102, 109.

³² AHFM, Protomedicato, Libro 41, fols. 64, 67, 71.

³³ AHFM, Protomedicato, leg. 19, exp. 27, fols. 1–6. Examinations continued to take place in the homes of doctors in the 1840s. See AHFM, Protomedicato, leg. 27, exp. 15, fol. 8 and AHFM, Protomedicato, leg. 27, exp. 16, fol. 8. Leading physicians ultimately pooled their own resources in 1854 and purchased the ex-Inquisition building, which would serve as the medical school for the next one hundred years. Professors were not allowed to tutor students from their own classes. See AHFM, Escuela de Medicina y Alumnos, leg. 290, exp. 1, fol. 12. Administrators sometimes complained about absenteeism by professors. See, for example, AHFM, Escuela de Medicina y Alumnos, leg. 149, exp. 28, fol. 3. Other examinations took place in the home of the Director of the Medical Board ( 1.8%) and the operating room at San Andrés Hospital (0.5%). The Faculty of Medicine was moved from the ex-Inquisition building to the campus of the National University in 1954. See Rodríguez, , “Escuela Nacional de Medicina,” p. 460.Google Scholar

³⁴ Salaries for obstetrics professors were commensurate with other medical faculty, and obstetrics instructors received the same salary whatever the gender of their students. See AHFM, Escuela de Medicina y Alumnos, leg. 188, exp. 4, fol. 130.

³⁵ Professors received the titles of catedrático, catedrático adjunto, and ayudante. Professors typically gave the obstetrics course during the fifth and final year of medical school along with a course in legal medicine. For examples of course listings, professors, required books and class scheduling for medical students, see AHFM, Documentos Rescatados, caja única, exp. 59 (1856); AHFM, Documentos Rescatados, caja única, exp. 248 (1860); AHFM, Documentos Rescatados, caja única, exp. 268 (1861); AHFM, Documentos Rescatados, caja única, exp. 247 (1873). AHFM, Escuela de Medicina y Alumnos, leg. 188, exp. 4, fol. 130 demonstrates that course requirements were amplified in the 1890s and included new subject areas such as bacteriology, public hygiene, and therapeutics. For a complete list of faculty members at the School of Medicine in 1878 and their respective positions and home addresses, see AHFM, Documentos Rescatados, caja única, exp. 275, fols. 1–4.

³⁶ AHFM, Escuela de Medicina y Alumnos, leg. 218, exp. 7, fols. 2–15; AHFM, Escuela de Medicina y Alumnos, leg. 209, exp. 8, fol. 2. For an examination of the hiring process for professors as well as written observations on the strengths and weaknesses of different candidates, see AHFM, Escuela de Medicina y Alumnos, leg. 210, exp. 3, fols. 1–7, 9–12, 19.

³⁷ No specific reasons were provided for faculty and student discontent. AH: CESU, Escuela Nacional de Medicina, caja 6, exp.-11, fol. 22. See AH: CESU, Escuela Nacional de Medicina, caja 6, exp. 10, fols. 20–21; and “El Ministerio de Justicia y la Escuela de Medicina: Triunfo de la tinebrosa,” El universal 12:106 10 May 1895), p. 1.

³⁸ AHFM, Documentos Rescatados, caja única, exp. 194, fols. 1–2.

³⁹ AHFM, Escuela de Medicina y Alumnos, leg. 290, exp. 1, fol. 6.

⁴⁰ AHFM, Documentos Rescatados, caja única, exp. 84, fs. 1–6; AHFM, Documentos Rescatados, caja única, exp. 83, fols. 1–5. Naegele, Hermann Franz and Grenser, Woldemar Ludwig, Lehrbuch der geburtshulfe, 5th ed. (Mainz: Von Victor V. Zabern, 1863).Google Scholar

⁴¹ AHFM, Protomedicato, leg. 20, exp. 20, fol. 1.

⁴² Ibid, fols. 1, 7. A widow in 1750 received permission to manage her deceased husband's phlebotomy office, though she was forbidden to practice phlebotomy herself. See AGN, Consejo Superior de Salubridad, leg. 11, exp. 41, fol. 1.

⁴³ AHFM, Protomedicato, leg. 33, exp. 4, fols. 1–13; AHFM, Documentos Rescatados, caja única, exp. 105, fols. 1–6. At other times during the nineteenth century, the School of Medicine also fell under the jurisdiction of the Secretary of Public Instruction and Fine Arts, and the Ministry of Public Education. See Rodríguez, , “Escuela Nacional de Medicina,” pp. 460–461.Google Scholar

⁴⁴ This census information is compiled from AGN, Padrones, volumes 82 and 86. No folder numbers are provided and pagination is haphazard. Volume 86 is dated 1850; volume 82 is officially listed as undated. However, both the handwriting and the names of the midwives who appear in volume 82 suggest that it was compiled around 1850. Columns exist in these censuses for information on trimester tax payments, but they are almost never completed; for that reason fiscal assessments for midwives and other professions cannot be tabulated from this document. Midwives in volume 82 were not listed in Libro 41 as having graduated from the School of Medicine. For a similar document on “professional” midwives and their residences in Mexico City in 1881, see AGN, Folletería, caja 35, folleto 915, fols. 761–780.

⁴⁵ Seventy-six taxpaying midwives contributed 121.50 total pesos to the government. The 12 other professional groups that paid taxes were lawyers, businessmen, businessmen without degrees, brokers, dentists, pharmacists, engineers-surveyors-architects, construction builders, allopathic doctors, homeopathic doctors, Protestant ministers and notaries. A note at the bottom of the document states that the number of professionals listed in each category is not indicative of the total number of professionals, but rather those who were not exempt from paying taxes. AGN, Folletería, caja 44, folleto 1124, fol. 34.

⁴⁶ Peñafiel, Antonio, ed. Censo general de la República Mexicana: Censo de Distrito Federal (Mexico City: Oficina Tip. de la Secretaría de Fomento, 1898), pp. 42–45;Google Scholar Peñafiel, Antonio, ed. Censo general de la República Mexicana: Censo y división territorial del Distrito Federal (Mexico City: Oficina Tip. de la Secretaría de Fomento, 1901), pp. 66–67,Google Scholar 73. Pharmacists are not included in the 1895 census. “Población” statistics are analyzed from the 1895 census. The 1895 census covers the municipality of Mexico City and the districts of Guadalupe-Hidalgo, Xochimilco, Tlalpan, and Tacubaya. The 1900 census includes the 8 cuarteles in Mexico City and the districts of Xochimilco, Tacubaya and Coyoacán. The combined population of these areas is 481,782. The differences between allopathic and homeopathic medicine are explained in Dubois, J.B., Diccionario de las enfermedades y tratamentos, Berben, Abdón, trans. (Madrid: Imprenta de Fortanet, 1892), pp. 20–21,Google Scholar 97. The distinction between “escolar” and “estudiante” is made in Ochoa, Carlos de, Novísimo diccionario de la lengua castellana (Paris and Mexico City: Librería de la Viuda de Ch. Bouret, 1896), pp. 602,Google Scholar 634. The author was unable to determine why there was such a dramatic difference in the recording of escolares from 1895 to 1900.

⁴⁷ Izaguirre, Manuel S., Estadística médica del Hospital de Maternidad é Infancia correspondiente a veinte años de 1883 a 1903 (Mexico City: Oficina Tip. de la Secretaría de Fomento, 1903), 2,Google Scholar located in AGN, Folletería, caja 49, folleto 11971.

⁴⁸ Mexico equaled and surpassed developments in other countries. Its School of Medicine, for example, taught obstetrics as early as the 1830s and successfully graduated hundreds of women well into the 20th century. Midwifery was not regulated in England until the promulgation of the Midwives Act of 1902. New York City's Board of Health did not request midwives to register themselves until 1907, and even then they did not have to demonstrate competency. Ten US states had no registry for midwives as late as 1930. See Barrett, Judy, Litoff, , ed. The American Midwife Debate: A Sourcebook on its Modern Origins (New York: Greenwood Press, 1986), pp. 8–10,Google Scholar 37, 47, 150; Morantz, Regina Markell, “The ‘Connecting Link’: The Case for the Woman Doctor in 19th Century America,” in Sickness and Health in America: Readings in the History of Medicine and Public Health, Leavitt, Judith Walzer and Numbers, Ronald L., eds. (Madison: The University of Wisconsin Press, 1978), p. 117.Google Scholar

⁴⁹ Pablos, Julia Tuñón, Women in Mexico: A Past Revealed, Hynds, Alan, trans. (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1999), p. 79.Google Scholar Meade, Teresa A., “Gender: 1821–1910,” in Encyclopedia of Mexico: History, Society & Culture, vol. 1, Werner, Michael S., ed. (Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers, 1997), p. 573.Google Scholar

⁵⁰ Meade, , “Gender: 1821–1910,” p. 573.Google Scholar

⁵¹ AH: CESU, Escuela Nacional de Medicina y Asuntos de Alumnos (Sección II), caja 7, exp. 24, fols. 1–47; AH: CESU, Escuela Nacional de Medicina y Asuntos de Alumnos (Sección II), leg. 28, exp. 108, fol. 46. Investigators who review the 1890 to 1928 registry should not rely on the incorrect tabulations on the inside cover of the book.

⁵² See the following documents from AHFM, Protomedicato: leg. 148, exp. 59; leg. 149, exp. 38; and leg. 56, exp. 47; and AH:CESU, Escuela Nacional de Medicina y Asuntos de Alumnos (Sección II), caja 4, exp. 20, fol. 89.

⁵³ AH: CESU, Escuela Nacional de Medicina y Asuntos de Alumnos (Sección II), caja 60, exp. 260, fols. 1–2, 98, 125, 152, 350, 414, 454; AH: CESU, Escuela Nacional de Medicina y Asuntos de Alumnos (Sección II), leg. 28, exp. 108, fols. 9–10.

⁵⁴ Pablos, Tuñon, Women in Mexico, p. 93.Google Scholar

⁵⁵ Soto, Shirlene, Emergence of the Modern Mexican Woman: Her Participation in Revolution and Struggle for Equality, 1910–1940 (Denver: Arden Press, Inc., 1990), 100.Google Scholar Even as late as 1949 a full 82 percent of university students were male. See Vaughan, Mary Kay, “Education: 1889–1940,” in Werner, , p. 445.Google Scholar

⁵⁶ Zolla, Carlos and Carrillo, Ana María, “Mujeres, saberes médicos e institucionalización,” in La condición de la mujer en el espacio de la salud, Figueroa Perea, Juan Guillermo, ed. (Mexico City: Colegio de México, 1998), p. 185.Google Scholar

⁵⁷ The author sincerely thanks Roberto Sandoval Hernández and Diana Cecilia Ortega Amieva of Mexico's Secretary of Public Education for providing detailed statistics on the 97 medical institutions and the gender of medical students in Mexico from 1945 to 2000. He also acknowledges the valuable assistance of Ernesto Cabrera Villoro who pursued this information.

⁵⁸ Statistics are based on graduates from the following universities: Escuela Libre de Homeopatía de México; Escuela Médico Militar (S.D.N.); Instituto Politécnico Nacional; Universidad La Salle; Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. Graduates from these universities received degrees in the following areas: Gineco-Obstetricia; Ginecología y Obstericia; Mtro. en Ciencias Médicas (Ginecología y Obstetricia); Médico Cirujano Partero Homeópata; Médico Cirujano y Partero. Derived from Secretaría de Educación Pública [SEP], Mexico, Subsecretaría de Educación Superior e Investigación Científica, “Total quinquenal de 1945-1999 por institución, sexo, y denominación de ginecología,” December 5, 2000, pp. 9–10, 17, 65, 70–71, 74. Gynecology as a field was developed in Mexico at the end of the nineteenth century, though medical practices associated with this field were previously incorporated into obstetrics. This writer found references to gynecology in Mexican medical journals beginning in 1877 and 1882. See Juan, Nicolás San and del Rio, Pablo Martínez, “Ginecología,” in Gaceta médica de México: Periódico de la Academia de Medicina de México 12:6 (March 15, 1877), pp. 101–108 Google Scholar and Fénélon, Juan F., “Apuntes sobre ginecología,” in Gaceta médica de México: Periódico de la Academia de Medicina de México 17:5 (March 1, 1882), pp. 70–72,Google Scholar 88–93. The origins of gynecological study in the US and useful descriptions of this branch of medicine can be found in McGregor, Deborah Kuhn, From Midwives to Medicine: The Birth of American Gynecology (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1998), esp. pp. 6,Google Scholar 48, 204.

⁵⁹ SEP, “Total quinquenal de 1945–2000 por institución, sexo, y denominación médica: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México,” 5 December 2000, p. 79.

⁶⁰ SEP, “Total quinquenal de 1945-2000 por institución, sexo, y denominación médica: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (Médico Cirujano),” December 5, 2000, p. 72. The title “Médico Cirujano” was translated as General Practitioner. Mexican women apparently made greater advancements in medical fields than women in the United States. Morantz notes that women in the U.S. only comprised 6 percent of doctors in 1950 compared to 9 percent in Mexico. Similarly to the United States, “it was not until the 1970s that dramatic alterations in the numbers of women in medical schools again occurred.” See Morantz, , “Introduction: From Art to Science: Women Physicians in American Medicine, 1600–1980,” in In Her Own Words: Oral Histories of Women Physicians, Morantz, Regina Markell, Pomerleau, Cynthia Stodola, and Fenichel, Carol Hansen, eds. (Westport: Greenwood Press, 1982), p. 23.Google Scholar

⁶¹ Top six female-dominated specialties with a minimum of 20 total graduates in field. Top six male-dominated specialties with a minimun of 100 total graduates in field. SEP, “Total quinquenal de 1945–2000 por institución, sexo, y denominación médica: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (Médico Cirujano),” December 5, 2000, pp. 67–79. Only specialties with five or more graduates (56/105) were included in tables 6 and 7. Translations for medical specialties are provided in Torres, Francisco Ruiz, Diccionario de términos médicos: Inglés-español, español-inglés (Madrid: Editorial Alhambra, 1986).Google Scholar

⁶² Uribe-Elías, Roberto, “Corrientes actuales en la formación de médicos,” Gaceta médica de México 125 (1989), p. 126.Google Scholar Lorber, Judith, “Why Women Physicians Will Never Be True Equals in the American Medical Profession,” in Gender, Work and Medicine: Women and the Medical Division of Labour, Riska, Elianne and Wegar, Katarina, eds. (London: Sage Publications, 1993), p. 65.Google Scholar

⁶³ Durán-Arenas, Luis, “Determinantes del estatus profesional de los médicos en México,” Gaceta médica de México 137 (2001), p. 518.Google Scholar Gender inequalities within professional medicine result from cultural and social barriers, the desire or need for many women to have a flexible work schedule in order to meet family obligations, and perhaps even a greater willingness on the part of women to provide primary health care. See Harrison, Margaret E., “Hobby or Job? Mexican Female Health Workers,” Health Care for Women International 15 (1994), pp. 397,CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed 409.