
Walking out on the boys
"In May 1991, Frances Conley, the first female tenured full professor of neurosurgery in the country, made headline news when she resigned from her position at Stanford University to protest the medical school's long-ingrained overt gender discrimination. In this forthright memoir, Conley describes her medical training, the enormous investment she made in becoming a member of the small, elite, white male world of neurosurgery, and her realization - late in an extraordinarily successful career - that she would never really be a full member of this club.". "Conley takes us inside the world of academic medicine, where all doctors are trained but where women are still considered inferior. As a result, research and treatment of women's health problems lag for behind those of men, and women's careers and psyches are suffering. Conley eventually returned to Stanford after some of the changes for which she had fought so hard were initiated, but her story makes it painfully clear that, in spite of their advances, female doctors - as well as all other female hospital staff - still have a long way to go before they are judged on the basis of their abilities rather than on their gender."--BOOK JACKET.
Beyond its central premise, the book can be read through the connected lenses of Nonfiction. Those themes offer useful points of attention as the characters, ideas, or world develop, especially where the book complicates the expectations of its primary category.
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What the reading experience may hold
A fuller profile for choosing with more confidence—not just another copy of the preview.
Nonfiction
Use these as starting points rather than limits; the most memorable books often stretch beyond their catalog labels.
No specific content concerns can be confirmed from the available English catalog information. Consult a publisher or reader-supplied guide when detailed warnings matter.
These notes are inferred from available catalog information and may not be complete. Check a publisher or reader-supplied guide if you need comprehensive warnings.
Balanced tone · Steady pace
A comfortable full-length choice for steady daily reading.
A good fit if…
Readers who want a thoughtful experience and enjoy noticing the connections beneath a book’s surface story.
This book's DNA
A visual estimate based on this edition's categories, description, and length. Select a star to explore the signals.
This signal is descriptive, not a rating. It helps compare the kind of reading experience this edition may offer.
Spoiler-Free Emotional Arc
A broad estimate of the book’s emotional rhythm, shown without story events or outcomes.
This visualization is an interpretive estimate based on catalog description, categories, tone, pace, and content signals. It does not describe specific scenes.
A quick reading snapshot
Edition facts and catalog signals to help you decide whether this book fits what you want to read next.
- ISBN-13
- 978-0-3742-8621-7
- Language
- English
- Edition record
- OL698823M
A more thoughtful way into this book
This guide uses the edition details and category signals above to help you choose deliberately. It does not replace the author's work or a full review.
A comfortable full-length choice for steady daily reading.
Begin with its place in Nonfiction, then notice where the book resists that label.
Read for connection, not completion.
Mark one passage that sharpens the book's central concern and one that complicates it. That tension often reveals more than a quick summary.
Three questions to carry with you
- Whose perspective organizes the story, and whose perspective remains outside it?
- Which sources or lived experiences carry the author’s central argument?
- How does the book change the way you understand its larger subject?
Editorial framework by Wesley Bryan, BookenDeX Founder and Editor.







