Frances K. Conley

Frances Krauskopf Conley (August 12, 1940, 2024) was a professor of neurosurgery at Stanford University. She was the author of Walking Out on the Boys, the story of her protest of misogyny at the university hospital. She is a crucial figure in the advancement of women in American medicine.

Early life Conley was born in 1940 to Konrad Bates Krauskopf and Kathryn McCune Krauskopf. She essentially grew up on the Stanford campus where her father was a professor of geochemistry. She decided in her early teenage years that she wanted to become a doctor even though the housewife stigma was the norm of the time.

She attended Bryn Mawr College in Lower Merion Township, Pennsylvania. In her junior year, she returned to Stanford. She then entered medical school at Stanford in 1961. Her class consisted of twelve women and sixty men and she noticed that male and female students were treated much differently. During her time at Stanford medical school, she quickly realized her true passion: surgery. Surgery was a male-dominated sub-field of medicine, but this did not stop Conley from pursuing it and she ended up finishing her M.D. degree in 1966. In 1977, she became the fifth woman to become a board certified neurosurgeon in the United States. In 1982, she was the first woman to be granted a tenured professorship in neurosurgery at a U.S. medical school,

Stanford University In June 1991, she publicly resigned in protest over the work environment that included sexist attitudes and outright sexual harassment that culminated in the appointment of Dr. Gerald Silverberg as acting chair of the department of neurosurgery despite accusations against him of sexual harassment by two clerical staff. Several months later, after promises of changes in university procedures and policies on sexism, she rescinded her resignation in an effort to ensure the changes might actually be implemented. Conley also boldly used the real names of the biggest perpetrators. This book offered some behind-the-scenes views of the medical school located at Stanford, including certain labs and research. Her resignation and the release of this book not only created some public support towards her, but also towards other instances of sexism across the country that not only occur in medical schools of universities but throughout hospitals and research environments as well.

Personal life and death In 1971, Conley was the first official women's winner of the Bay to Breakers 12K footrace with a time of 50:45. Her husband, Phil Conley, was also an athlete, representing the United States in track and field at the 1956 Olympics.