Suzanne Schiff-Wertheimer, MD, as a role model.

T he recent increase in the number of women in ophthalmology has been accompanied by a historical interest in female physicians as role models. Important questions arise in this search: How did these women achieve their positions? What obstacles did they have to overcome? How did their families, colleagues, and patients perceive them? What were their contributions to the field? One means of understanding how these concerns have been resolved successfully is to examine the career of an individual who performed particluarly well.