The following perspective piece, published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, discusses the importance of greater female representation on the boards of provincial and national medical associations. The article examines the changing relationship between women and the health care system; particularly, the percieved medical control of women’s reproducitve functions and the implied definition of normal life-cycle events, such as menopause, as illnesses. The medical system of the future, with its greatly increased female workforce, must minimize the number of obstacles that have faced women physicians throughout this century and make it easier for them to work within the system without having to succumb to stresses caused by their multiple roles.