September is Women in Medicine Month, a time to celebrate the extraordinary contributions of women physicians, recognize the barriers that remain, and recommit ourselves to building a future in medicine where women can lead, thrive, and make their fullest impact.

For the American Medical Women’s Association (AMWA), this month is also an opportunity to connect generations of women in medicine—from the pioneers who challenged convention and opened doors more than a century ago to the women transforming medicine today and those who will lead us into the future.

Throughout Women in Medicine Month, AMWA will celebrate this continuum of leadership through several special events, recognitions, and initiatives.

Bringing 1001 CUTS to a National Audience

AMWA is proud to partner in the PBS premiere and screening of 1001 CUTS, the powerful documentary examining the experiences of women surgeons and the gender inequities that persist within medicine.

Through deeply personal stories, the film gives voice to experiences that too often remain unseen or unspoken. Its message extends far beyond surgery, challenging all of us to consider how culture, systems, and expectations shape the careers and lives of women physicians.

The PBS premiere brings these important conversations to a broader national audience and creates an opportunity to turn awareness into meaningful change.

Annual Women in Medicine Lectureship

AMWA will also co-host the Annual Women in Medicine Lectureship, bringing together distinguished leaders in medicine for a timely conversation about leadership, science, and the future of healthcare.

The lectureship reflects an important part of Women in Medicine Month: creating space not only to celebrate women’s accomplishments, but also to hear from women whose leadership is shaping the institutions, policies, and scientific advances that influence medicine today.

Celebrating Our AMWA INSPIRE Awardees

Later this month, AMWA will announce the recipients of the AMWA 2026 INSPIRE Awards, recognizing women physicians who exemplify the very best of our profession.

These women lead, mentor, innovate, advocate, educate, and serve. Perhaps most importantly, they inspire those around them. By recognizing their accomplishments, we hope to amplify their work while introducing the next generation to role models who demonstrate the many ways a woman can make a difference in medicine.

Presidents, Pioneers, and Progress: The Women Who Led AMWA

We will close Women in Medicine Month by looking back at the women whose leadership helped make so much of today’s progress possible with a new historical exhibition: Presidents, Pioneers, and Progress: The Women Who Led AMWA

Since AMWA’s founding in 1915, generations of women physicians have stepped forward to lead the organization—often during periods of profound change in medicine, women’s rights, public health, and society.

Some were pioneers in their specialties. Others broke barriers within academic medicine, organized women physicians around critical health issues, advocated for policy change, mentored generations of younger physicians, or helped AMWA navigate pivotal moments in its history.

Together, their stories tell not only the history of AMWA, but also part of the larger history of women in American medicine. The new exhibition will celebrate these remarkable women and the leadership, vision, and determination they brought to AMWA and to the profession.

Honoring the Past. Celebrating the Present. Building the Future.

Women in Medicine Month reminds us that progress is built across generations.

We honor the pioneers who opened doors when few were open to women. We celebrate the women leading and transforming medicine today. And we invest in the students, trainees, and early-career physicians who will carry that work forward.

More than a century after AMWA’s founding, that continuum remains at the heart of our mission.

This September, we celebrate the women who came before us, the women leading beside us, and the women who will lead medicine next.