News for Women in Psychiatry

By MARIAN A. ORMONT, MD

The Committee on Women of the New York County District Branch (NYCoDB) of the American Psychiatric Association presents an annual lecture series on gender and women’s issues to the psychiatry trainees at NYU Bellevue, Morisa Schiff-Mayer, MD, Chairperson of the Committee since 1992, coordinates this course which was developed in response to the growing awareness of women’s issues and the lack of formal teaching in this area. Alexandra Symonds, MD, pioneered this process and worked tirelessly to get this lecture series incorporated into the NYU-Bellevue curriculum. After her death in the early 1990s, the NyCoDB’s Committee on Women of which Symonds had been an active contributing member for many years continued the lecture series. Most years topics include Modern Psychoanalytic Theories about Women, Developmental Issues in Motherhood, Gender issues in Raising Children, Feminist Perspectives on Eating Disorders, The Pregnant Therapist, Sex Offenders and Their Victims, and Adolescent Girls.

Topics related to gender and women have traditionally been overlooked in psychiatry training programs. This was also the case in the psychiatry profession before the 1970s. At that time, Barbara O’Connell, MD established the first Committee on Women in Westchester. While many felt that the language of radical feminism and the concepts of women’s liberation were "off-putting," women psychiatrists had identified the increasing need for professional women to explore, understand and communicate information about both gender and women’s issues.

The National Committee on Women was formed in 1975 and by the end of 1996, 51 of the 70 district branches had started Committees on Women. The NYCoDB formed its Committee on Women in 1975, and in 1979 received recognition from the National Committee as being the most active Committee on Women in the country. Rather than becoming complacent because of its successful activities, the NYCoDB Committee on Women doubled its efforts. In 1980, the chair of this committee, Ann Turkel, MD, and Alexandra Symonds catalyzed the formation of a nucleus of psychiatrists for the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA). The committee was instrumental in the organization of the boycott of the APA in Chicago, as Illinois did not support the ERA. The committee went on to write position papers on the ERA and on abortion.

The lecture series at NYU-Bellevue has not been the Committee’s only attempt at integrating women’s issues into academics Much time and effort was spend helping to change sexist diagnostic categories and language in the DSMLists of accomplished women psychiatrists for Grand Rounds presentations were compiled and distributed to area hospitals and teaching institutions.

The Committee on Women of the NYCoDB strongly believes that professional women must lead the way in promoting identification, research, education and communication of information about gender issues and women’s issues. Allowing the current momentum to die down would reverse the progress already made in these areas.