Women in Medicine Month 2025 Reading List
Published September 16, 2025
Inside OME
Honor and celebrate Women in Medicine Month and beyond by enjoying these books recommended by the osteopathic medical education community!
Leadership
Real Power: Stages of Personal Power in Organizations
Janet O. Hagberg has written a dynamic book about power—real, personal power—for forward-looking people in organizations who want to harness their own power for the common good. She addresses what Real Power looked like during two of the most horrific experiences of this century; the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic and George Floyd’s heinous murder. She outlines which behaviors depict each power stage during and after those experiences and invites readers to see themselves in honest reflections, by how they reacted and what evolved in their own lives.
Physician Leadership: The 11 Skills Every Doctor Needs to Be an Effective Leader
In Physician Leadership, renowned medical leader Karen J. Nichols, DO, delivers a concise guide for busy physicians doing their best to successfully lead people and organizations. The book covers foundational essentials that every physician needs to master to transform themselves from a highly motivated novice into an effective, skilled and productive leader. Perfect for doctors stepping into a leadership role for the first time, Physician Leadership also belongs on the bookshelves of experienced physician leaders seeking to improve their abilities and the results of their organizations.
Duty Calls: Lessons Learned from an Unexpected Life of Service
With a distinguished career spanning more than four decades, including serving as the U.S. Surgeon General and the New York State Commissioner of Health during 9/11, the story of Antonia Novello, MD, MPH, highlights an unwavering dedication to improving the well-being of individuals and communities. With honesty and openness, Dr. Novello, the first woman and first Hispanic Surgeon General of the United States, shares her early battles with childhood illness and her desire to overcome stereotypes, while chronicling her meteoric rise through various roles in the field of healthcare, leading to her service as the nation's top medical officer.
Between Grit and Grace: The Art of Being Feminine and Formidable
Women need to know it’s okay to be kind and assertive. Author Sasha Shillcutt, MD, a nationally lauded, award-winning physician and speaker, taught herself how to be a gritty, grace-filled leader and live authentically. Now, she wants to help other women be brave enough to do the same.
Addressing Historical Mistreatment
In the early 1800s, women were dying in large numbers from treatable diseases because they avoided receiving medical care. Examinations performed by male doctors were often demeaning and even painful. In addition, women faced stigma from illness—a diagnosis could greatly limit their ability to find husbands, jobs or be received in polite society.
Motivated by personal loss and frustration over inadequate medical care, Elizabeth Blackwell, Elizabeth Garrett Anderson and Sophia Jex-Blake fought for a woman's place in the male-dominated medical field. Olivia Campbell tells the complete history of these three pioneering women who, despite countless obstacles, earned medical degrees and paved the way for other women to do the same.
The history of women’s healthcare is a story in which women themselves have too often been voiceless. The result is a cultural and societal legacy that continues to shape the (mis)treatment and care of women. Memorial Sloan Kettering oncologist and medical historian Elizabeth Comen, MD, draws back the curtain on the collective medical history of women to reintroduce us to our whole bodies, the actual doctors and patients whose perspectives and experiences laid the foundation for today’s medical thought and the many oversights that still remain unaddressed.
Editor of the award-winning site Feministing.com, Maya Dusenbery brings together scientific and sociological research, interviews with doctors and researchers and personal stories from women across the country to provide the first comprehensive, accessible look at how sexism in medicine harms women today.
In the fall of 2010, Abby Norman's strong dancer's body dropped forty pounds and gray hairs began to sprout from her temples. She was repeatedly hospitalized in excruciating pain, but the doctors insisted it was a urinary tract infection and sent her home with antibiotics. Unable to get out of bed, much less attend class, Norman dropped out of college and embarked on what would become a years-long journey to discover what was wrong with her. It wasn't until she took matters into her own hands—securing a job in a hospital and educating herself over lunchtime reading in the medical library—that she found an accurate diagnosis of endometriosis.
Her name was Henrietta Lacks, but scientists know her as HeLa. Her cells—taken without her knowledge—became one of the most important tools in medicine: The first “immortal” human cells grown in culture. Yet Henrietta’s family did not learn of her “immortality” until more than twenty years after her death, when scientists investigating HeLa began using her husband and children in research without informed consent. And though the cells had launched a multimillion-dollar industry that sells human biological materials, her family never saw any of the profits. As Rebecca Skloot so brilliantly shows, the story of the Lacks family—past and present—is inextricably connected to the dark history of experimentation on African Americans, the birth of bioethics and the legal battles over whether we control the stuff we are made of.
Memoir and Self-Help
For the last twenty years, Melinda Gates has been on a mission to find solutions for people with the most urgent needs, wherever they live. Throughout this journey, one thing has become increasingly clear to her: If you want to lift a society up, you need to stop keeping women down. Melinda’s unforgettable narrative is backed by startling data as she presents the issues that most need our attention—from child marriage to lack of access to contraceptives to gender inequity in the workplace. And, for the first time, she writes about her personal life and finding her voice. Throughout, she shows how there has never been more opportunity to change the world—and ourselves.
Between Two Kingdoms: A Memoir of a Life Interrupted
In the summer after graduating from college, Suleika Jaouad, MFA, was preparing, as they say in commencement speeches, to enter “the real world.” The real world she found, however, would take her into a very different kind of conflict zone. Between Two Kingdoms is a profound chronicle of survivorship and a fierce, tender and inspiring exploration of what it means to begin again.
Letter to a Young Female Physician
In 2017, Suzanne Koven, MD, MFA, published an essay describing the challenges faced by female physicians, including her own personal struggle with imposter syndrome—a long-held secret belief that she was not smart enough or good enough to be a "real" doctor. Accessed by thousands of readers around the world, Koven's Letter to a Young Female Physician has evolved into a deeply felt reflection on her career in medicine.
Gladys McGarey, MD, cofounder of the American Holistic Medical Association, began her medical practice at a time when women couldn’t even have their own bank accounts. Over the past sixty years, she has pioneered a new way of thinking about disease and health that has transformed the way we imagine healthcare and self-care around the world. In a voice that is both practical and inspiring, Dr. McGarey shares her own extraordinary stories and eternal wisdom—from her early childhood in India and a chance encounter with Mahatma Gandhi to her life as a physician and a mother of six, to her survival of both heartbreak and illness. Dr. Gladys shares her inspiring vision for a healthier and more joyful future for us all.
Locked inside a brain-injured head looking out at a challenging world is the premise of this extraordinary memoir chronicling the long process of adjustment and rehabilitation after a fateful, helmetless bike ride. In Over My Head, Claudia Osborn, DO, a doctor and clinical professor of medicine, recounts coming to terms with the loss of her identity and the courageous steps (and hilarious missteps) she took while learning to rebuild her life.
Rewire: Break the Cycle, Alter Your Thoughts and Create Lasting Change
In clear language, neuroscientist Nicole Vignola demystifies the science of breaking bad habits and how to make good ones, the principles of neuroplasticity, and neurohack methods for changing behavioral patterns. In the end, she helps you to see yourself in a different way and control how you react to any life situation, from overcoming negative, limiting beliefs to managing stress and achieving peak mental wellbeing.
Fiction
Women can be heroes. When twenty-year-old nursing student Frances “Frankie” McGrath hears these words, it is a revelation. Raised in the sun-drenched, idyllic world of Southern California and sheltered by her conservative parents, she has always prided herself on doing the right thing. But in 1965, the world is changing, and she suddenly dares to imagine a different future for herself. When her brother ships out to serve in Vietnam, she joins the Army Nurse Corps and follows his path. Kristen Hannah’s The Women is the story of one woman gone to war, but it shines a light on all women who put themselves in harm’s way and whose sacrifice and commitment to their country has too often been forgotten.
Maine, 1789: When the Kennebec River freezes, entombing a man in the ice, Martha Ballard is summoned to examine the body and determine cause of death. As a midwife and healer, she is privy to much of what goes on behind closed doors in Hallowell. Her diary is a record of every birth and death, crime and debacle that unfolds in the close-knit community. Months earlier, Martha documented the details of an alleged rape committed by two of the town’s most respected gentlemen—one of whom has now been found dead in the ice. But when a local physician undermines her conclusion, declaring the death to be an accident, Martha is forced to investigate the shocking murder on her own. Clever, layered and subversive, Ariel Lawhon’s newest offering introduces an unsung heroine who refused to accept anything less than justice at a time when women were considered best seen and not heard. The Frozen River is a thrilling, tense and tender story about a remarkable woman who left an unparalleled legacy yet remains nearly forgotten to this day.
In emergency medicine doctor Kimmery Martin, MD,’s first novel, Emma and Zadie, two close physician friends practicing in the same city, are bound together by a tragedy from their medical school days. When someone from their past returns, they have to reckon with the secrets they held and how they change their friendship forever.
In this whip-smart and timely novel from Dr. Kimmery Martin, two doctors travel a surprising path when they must choose between treating their patients and keeping their jobs. Georgia is a urologist practicing in the South. When she sees her friend Jonah suffering for upholding his beliefs in his practice in spite of a hostile political environment, she makes decisions that have a ripple effect on herself, her community and everyone she loves.
Hannah, Compton and Kira have been close friends since medical school, reuniting once a year for a much-needed vacation. Just as they gather to travel in Spain, an outbreak of a fast-spreading virus throws the world into chaos. Written prior to COVID-19 by Dr. Kimmery Martin, Doctors and Friends incorporates unexpected wit, razor-edged poignancy and a deeply relatable cast of characters who provoke both laughter and tears.
Angela Appiah has a blueprint for success, which involves excelling in all her rotations and honoring her Ghanaian heritage. When she faces challenges, we see how she finds success both personally and professionally. In On Rotation, Shirlene Obuobi, MD, offers a heartfelt and authentic look into the life of a young Black woman navigating medical school, balancing identity, family expectations and the challenges of becoming a physician.
AACOM thanks Anamaria Ancheta, OMS III, Burrell College of Osteopathic Medicine; Shereen Aziz, OMS II, and Giana Davlantes, OMS II, California Health Sciences University College of Osteopathic Medicine; Stephanie Garvis, OMS I, Idaho College of Osteopathic Medicine; Maaida Kirmani, OMS II, University of the Incarnate Word School of Osteopathic Medicine; Ayanda Chantelle Mkhize, OMS II, Noorda College of Osteopathic Medicine; Sharon J. Obadia, DO, dean, associate professor, Internal Medicine, A.T. Still University-School of Osteopathic Medicine in Arizona; Kelly Reed, DO, board certified dermatologist and fellowship trained Mohs micrographic surgeon; Bernadette Riley, DO, MS, Department of Family Medicine professor and Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome / Hypermobility Treatment Center director, New York Institute of Technology College of Osteopathic Medicine, for sharing these recommendations. If you’d like to add more to your reading list, visit our diversity in medicine books collection.
Anything we missed? Share what you’re reading this year by tagging us on Twitter/X at @AACOMmunities.