BUILDING THE NATION THROUGH WOMEN'S HEALTH: MODERN ...

three-quarters of the profession, but by World War II more than half of physicians in the West
considered themselves to be specialists. 435 This is when the gynecologist/obstetrician began to
take over the general practitioner’s role as birth attendant. The American Board of Obstetrics
and Gynecology formed in 1930 as the second specialty board in the United States (the first was
Ophthalmology in 1917). It “immediately became important as a certifying agency of
competence as a specialist for those physicians who passed the examinations.” 436 There was also
an expansion of hospitals during this time and a move away from charity hospitals, which
allowed women of other socioeconomic classes more hospital birthing options. 437 Most
OB/GYN physicians during this time were men, although more and more women continued to
specialize in pediatrics and OB/GYN in the late nineteenth century.
Discrimination kept most American women physicians from participation in hospital-
based and specialty practices in the early twentieth century. It was difficult for women to get
residencies and appointments at hospitals as hospitals gained professional importance for
training physicians. Before WWI, hospitals in the United States were charity hospitals for
chronically ill and impoverished people who could not afford private care in their homes. There
were fewer than 200 hospitals nationwide in the 1870s. Around this time, hospitals started to
become independent from almshouses, some privately owned by philanthropists or religious
groups, and others owned by the physicians who operated them. People gained more trust in
hospitals as medical advances provided cures rather than only care. By 1904, there were
approximately 1,500 hospitals in the United States. Residencies grew as an important part of
medical training, and medical schools started affiliating with hospitals. Johns Hopkins
435 Ibid.
436 Taylor, History of the American Gynecological Society, 32-33.
437 Leavitt and Numbers, eds., Sickness & Health in America, 176-77.
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