Good evening Ruth Jackson members.

I am here today to reflect on the past 40 years, opine on the present and impress upon you the next 40 years to come.

40 years ago, at the academy meeting in 1983, a group of women got together for a luncheon – there were about 20-30 of them, and some of them are here now. Yolanda Roth & Claudia Thomas – could you please stand?

40 years ago, many of the women in this room were not born. I was just born – and so, like RJOS, I am 40.

I am 40, RJOS is 40 and I am wearing a crown. A little more on that as I go on.

First, our history:

RJOS was founded in 1983 as a support and networking group for the growing number of women orthopaedic surgeons. The women at the first meeting felt that there were many common problems confronting them, which could best be solved by pooling resources. These range from sharing technical solutions for practice problems to how to survive motherhood and orthopaedic practice or residency at the same time.

Ruth Jackson, the first board certified female orthopedic surgeon. She was told she could not join the Academy and could not take her boards. She was told NO. So what did Dr. Jackson do?
She did what I any of us would have done. She ignored the no. In fact, she deliberately did the opposite of what she was told. She smashed the patriarchy!
She took and passed her boards. She joined the Academy.
Dr. Ruth Jackson was the first – and look around – she certainly was not the last. I do not have to ask how many of have been told no and did it anyway – I know the answer. All of you.

Dr. Jackson said that she never meant to be famous. She just did her work and “paid attention to the little things.”

And now we are celebrating 40 years of an organization named for Ruth – and I feel more than honored to be up here – I feel empowered. I am a girl from a tiny Brooklyn neighborhood famous for another Ruth – Ruth Bader Ginsberg. I trekked 90 minutes to my math & science high school in Manhattan where it was normal, commonplace and expected for girls to excel in STEM. I was the first in my family to go to college and still am the only one to go to medical school. I trained at SUNY Downstate and Kings County Hospital. I had a stairwell I would retreat to – to cry – as a resident.  Never in my wildest dreams did I think I would be standing here in front of you all now – and let me tell you –  I got here by hearing “no” a hell of a lot. And, just like Ruth, I did not take no for an answer – again and again. Tonight, I hope to empower each of you, the way Ruth Jackson has empowered me.