Category: Women in Medicine
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Fanny Hesse: Mother of microbiology
Howard FischerUppsala, Sweden “Her contribution to bacteriology makes her immortal.”1—Medical historians Arthur Hitchens and Morris Leikind “C’est un grand progrès!”2—Louis Pasteur Fanny Hesse (neé Angelina Fanny Eilshemius, 1850–1935) was born in New York City, the oldest of ten children in a family of Dutch origin. In 1874 she married German physician Walther Hesse (1846–1911) and…
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Byzantine women in medicine
Brady LonerganFarmington, Connecticut, United States Literary and material evidence includes medical treatises ostensibly written by female physicians and references to female medical writers’ pharmaceutical contributions as early as the late classical period (fifth century BCE) in the Greco-Roman world.1 The second century CE physician Galen cites remedies attributed to Spendousa, Aquilia Secundilla, and Antiochis.2 The…
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She who heals: From goddess to surgeon
Elie NajjarNottingham, United Kingdom Every incision carries two stories. One is written in anatomy. The other—in myth. In the theatre, the light hums softly above the table, and the air smells of antiseptic and electricity. Beneath the drapes, muscle and bone shimmer like hidden scripture. Surgery, I have learned, is not only science. It is…
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Pauline Chaponnière-Chaix
Avi OhryTel Aviv, Israel Pauline Chaponnière-Chaix (1850–1934) was a nurse and activist born in Geneva, Switzerland. After her husband died, she went to Paris to join the House of Deaconesses of Reuilly, a Protestant religious community founded in 1841 that provided outreach to the poor. Chaponnière-Chaix worked with children whose parents were in prison or in other…
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Women in medicine
Women have long faced discrimination, prejudice, and exclusion from formal medical training, despite having served as healers and midwives since antiquity. In ancient Egypt, Merit Ptah was recognized as the first known woman physician in about 2700 BCE. In Greece, owing to societal restrictions, women like Agnodice practiced medicine clandestinely, eventually leading to legal reforms…
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Metrodora: Egyptian physician, midwife, and surgeon
Geraldine MillerLiverpool, England Metrodora is considered to be the “the mother of gynecology.”1 Yet, for many centuries, she has remained unknown. Even today, there are few within the medical community who know much about her pioneering work as a midwife, gynecologist, and surgeon who performed “procedures ahead of her era.”2 She is believed to have…
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Dr. Mary Edwards Walker: A trailblazer for female surgeons
Shabnam ParsaLeshya BokkaLiam ButchartStony Brook, New York, United States Dr. Mary Edwards Walker (1832–1919) was the first female surgeon in the United States—a pioneering educator, clinician, and medical innovator.1 Her academic path was paved by her parents’ dedication to education. Vesta and Alva Walker established the first free school in Oswego, New York, where they…
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Kadambini Bose Ganguly—India’s first female physician
Arpan K. BanerjeeSolihull, England The name Kadambini Ganguly is not as well remembered today as those of other female pioneering physicians around the world. In her time, Ganguly was a remarkable trailblazer and the first Indian female doctor to practice Western medicine in India. She was also one of the first women to be admitted…
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Rita Levi-Montalcini (1909–2012): “Chance favors the prepared mind”
James L. FranklinChicago, Illinois, United States On December 10, 1986, Rita Levi-Montalcini and Stanley Cohen shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their work in neurobiology and for the discovery of “nerve growth factor” (NGF) that has since shed light on tumors, wound healing, and other medical problems. Levi-Montalcini was the first Italian…