THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, November 3, 1996 TAG: 9611030037
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MARIE JOYCE, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: 30 lines
A woman has been chosen to lead the Medical Society of Virginia for the first time since the group was organized in 1820.
Dr. Carol S. Shapiro, a surgeon from Woodbridge, was named president-elect Saturday at the society's annual meeting. She will begin her duties next fall, following Dr. Kenneth D. Tuck.
Shapiro said she would like to see more women participate. The society is still overwhelmingly male - about 30 women were among 500 or so delegates to the convention this year.
``When I first got involved, I think there were four or five women in the whole delegation,'' she said.
She noted that women make up about 40 percent of medical school students. They need mentors, she said.
``Women don't do very well ordinarily with networking. It's something men learn at a very young age,'' she said.
The society is showing other signs of women's influence. The meeting delegates voted to establish a permanent committee to address issues concerning women physicians.
Shapiro's election was praised by Dr. Claudette Dalton, an anesthesiologist from Albemarle. When she talks to female medical students, she tells them, ``It is a white, male system. That's not bad, and it's not meant to be malicious,'' but they must work if they want it to change. by CNB