When the UC Davis School of Medicine was established 40 years ago, women physicians were a rarity, with fewer than 8 percent of all doctors in the United States being women. The School of Medicine's founding faculty reflected that ratio in 1968, when 10 percent of its members were women. In conjunction with the UC Davis Centennial, UC Davis' Women in Medicine group honored recently the "School of Medicine Founding Women," women faculty who started their careers at the School of Medicine between 1969 and 1990.

Today, women comprise 31 percent of the School of Medicine faculty, and more than half of the students are women. In fact, this year, 57 percent of the school's incoming class members are women, almost 10 percentage points higher than the national average.