On November 6, 1847, Elizabeth Blackwell arrived in Geneva, New York to attend the Geneva Medical University. In doing so, she became the first woman to attend medical school in the United States. She had applied and rejected by countless other medical schools, and it turns out that the Geneva Medical School only accepted her because she delayed the decision to her students who approved her application as a joke.
Elizabeth Blackwell (1821-1910), first woman (in 1849) to receive a medical degree in the US … [+]
I think the joke is on them.
Blackwell would later write, “I had no idea of the commotion caused by my performance as a medical student in the town. Very slowly I noticed that a doctor’s wife at the table avoided any communication with me, and that as I walked back and forth to the university, the ladies stopped to stare at me, as if at a curious animal. I later found that I had shaken the decency of Geneva to the point that the theory was completely established that I was an evil woman, whose plans would gradually become clear, or that, if I was insane, there would soon be an outburst of madness.”
Two years later, in 1849, Blackwell received her medical degree and opened the floodgate for all the female doctors who came after her.
Turn the clock forward 175 years, and women now occupy the largest proportion of U.S. medical school students, 52.7%, according to a 2021 report from the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC).
Yet women make up only 22% of all general surgeons, and that percentage decreases with more specialized surgery. We have to ask ourselves, why?
Board-certified plastic surgeon Kriti Mohan, MD has some answers. Mohan immigrated to the US from India at the age of eight and faced ethnic and racial discrimination in primary school. But in medical school, the discrimination was different.
“When I was in medical school and in my residency, it was harder being a girl,” Mohan recalls. “[My] race was okay. Being a woman was a challenge.”
Yet in the 21st century.
“I remember hearing when I was in medical school and about to go to college that, ‘You can’t wear makeup. You have to downplay your femininity.’
Plastic surgeon Dr. Kriti Mohan
“And I was a little stunned. I don’t wear makeup for you. I wear makeup because I feel like makeup. I’m going to brush my hair because I feel like brushing my hair. And I saw a lot of the women in that residency program become extremely aggressive and domineering to counter those things.
“It became very important for me to embrace the fact that I was a woman. That gave me certain advantages and certain disadvantages, but I would take ownership of who I was.”
What were some benefits?
“It gave me the opportunity to interact with patients in a unique way, a little bit different. Male patients, female patients, their guard is a bit different when you’re a young woman. They’re more likely to be open with you, familiar with you, telling you things they might not otherwise tell a doctor.”
What were some drawbacks?
“It was believed that because you were a girl or because you were beautiful there were benefits to you, especially in plastic surgery. I always did my best to prove that wasn’t the case. I always made sure I was the first to finish and the last to leave. Frankly, I think it made me work harder and do more.”
“And I think it paid off in the end,” Mohan continues.
Today, Dr. Mohan oversees Ciaravino Total Beauty, one of the world’s premier plastic surgery centers in Houston, Texas, specializing in breast augmentation. dr. Michael Ciaravino built his practice from the ground up into a household name in breast implant surgery, performing more than 800 breast augmentations a year. After taking over his practice, Dr. Mohan figures Ciaravino in her very first year.
“He entrusted me with his practice to carry on with what was like a third child to him. Even during the daily struggles that come with any business, I can pioneer that legacy.”
dr. Mohan hopes that one day Ciaravino will be a household name for implants and an authority on beauty and injectables.
For her, the standard for the clinic is clear:
“It should be like a philosophical mindset in what surgeries you do… how you do them, how you take care of patients before and after, how you give them these results that they will last a lifetime that they have no problem with. That has always been the Ciaravino way. The whole package of complete integrated care.”
Medicine as (big) business
I asked Dr. Mohan how she could translate her medical prowess into a successful business owner.
“My freshman year, I went to work at five in the morning and didn’t leave until nine at night. I was determined to make this work, and that there wasn’t a detail I left undisturbed or patiently left that I wouldn’t call in person postoperatively. From the patients to running the business, there was nothing I hadn’t set my eyes on – finance, marketing, whatever was needed.”
The most successful marketing of Dr. Mohan was via social media.
“We had social media, Instagram, Facebook, but it was more stock photos. We had a great culture of women taking care of women and nice staff, but in my opinion we didn’t show that. So increasing our social media presence was probably my biggest effort.”
What advice would you give to emerging women leaders?
1. Be willing to work hard
“I would say it’s all about hard work and dedication. I would tell everyone that if you’re not willing to put in the time, no one else will ever do it for you.”
2. Lead by example
“I have a group of more than 10 women on my staff, and I am always the first to arrive and the last to leave, because you have to lead by example. And you can’t expect someone to do something you don’t want to.
“If I want my staff to be kind to our patients or have a certain understanding with them, if I don’t show it myself, it’s not going to happen. And so is everything else. If I talk badly to my staff or to anyone, well, they start to talk badly to each other. So it really goes with everything, really, really leading by example.”
3. Be true to yourself
“I always tell my staff: never do or say anything that you don’t feel comfortable with being published on the front page of a newspaper. That’s how I live my life. And luckily for me, I can be true to myself in that. Because in this age we live in, the truth will come out. Everyone knows everyone’s true personalities, and I think you have to be true to yourself.”
4. Find a mentor
Find those people who really inspire you and help pave your path to success.
5. Be passionate and love what you do
“I really like what I do. I love it all. Even the things I don’t really like doing, I’m willing to do them because I love everything else around it. I like to operate. And I know that if I don’t run my business well, I can’t function. So, find that real passion for yourself.
“If they say that if you love what you do, you will never work a day in your life, then it is absolutely true. Because it gets difficult. And in those moments when it’s so hard and you don’t want to do it anymore, if you didn’t really love it, you won’t last very long.”
dr. Mohan certainly took her own advice to become one of Texas’ most prominent plastic surgeons. However, it is staggering that while 92% of all plastic surgery patients are women, only 17.2% of plastic surgeons are women.
Why we need more female (plastic) surgeons
A 2022 study published in the medical journal JAMA operation found that both male and female patients fared better under the care of female surgeons, with female patients experiencing a marked decrease in surgical complications, readmissions and fatalities.
The statistics predicted the success of Dr. Mohan didn’t, and although some of her medical school colleagues rejected her, Dr. Michael Ciaravino Mohan’s steadfast dedication and talent. Ciaravino didn’t just see a “girl”; he saw a physician whose dedication to her craft and surgical prowess was so evident that he would entrust his entire estate to her just before his death. The Story of Dr. Kriti Mohan proves that a dedicated woman who works hard can transcend the barriers of misogyny and prejudice.
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