Category: Women in Medicine
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Ida Sophia Scudder
Angela JosephNew Delhi, India This article is dedicated to the loving memory of my mother, Dr. A.C. Ammini. Born in India in 1870, Ida Sophia Scudder belonged to a missionary family. Her grandfather, Dr. John Scudder, was the first medical missionary from the United States to work overseas; and each of his seven sons contributed…
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Women in medicine in Serbia
Bojana CokićZajecar, Serbia Draga Ljočić-Milošević, a feminist activist and the first female Serbian physician, dedicated her life to advancing women’s rights. She helped facilitate the emancipation of women in conservative Serbia and campaigned for gender equality in the field of medicine. The vast majority of Serbian women had few educational opportunities during the second half…
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Hazel Louise McGaffey, MD
Byron McGaffey Edited by Ann McGaffey Priest River, Idaho, United States Dr. Hazel McGaffey and patient with tuberculosis Photography by John M. Miller Courtesy of Seattle Post-Intelligencer She was not famous and came from an unlikely medical career wellspring. Hazel Louise McGaffey (née Anderson) was born 21 August 1924 on her pioneer parents’ farm…
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Elizabeth Blackwell, MD
JMS Pearce East Yorkshire, England Figure 1 Although Elizabeth Blackwell was portrayed on an 18 cent US stamp in 1974, curiously this was over a century after she graduated in medicine (Figure 1). Many remain unaware of her remarkable story as the first female Anglo-American physician, campaigner, and medical suffragette (Figure 2). [i] She…
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Mary Poonen Lukose
K.S. Mohindra Ottawa, Ontario, Canada Dr. Mary Poonen Lukose In a country where the status of women has been less than impressive, the Indian physician Mary Poonen Lukose blazed fiercely forward in a field dominated by men. Specializing in obstetrics and gynecology, she demonstrated innovation, leadership, and effective organizing capacities, making significant contributions to…
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Rosalyn Yalow: opinions and actions
Maja Nowakowski Brooklyn, New York, United States “Peer-review process cannot possibly support truly original research because, by definition, an original thinker has no peers.” Anyone who had even a brief conversation with Rosalyn Yalow will recognize her profound insight and bold judgment. These were not idle words: Rosalyn Sussman Yalow, the second woman ever…
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Cicely Williams and kwashiorkor
Sue Reeves Roehampton, London, UK Figure 1. Dr Cicely Williams in later years on a visit to Ghana (The Wellcome Trust, London). Cicely Delphine Williams (1893-1992) has been described as achieving the ‘physician’s dream’1 by diagnosing, identifying the cause, and finding a prevention and a cure for a disease.2 The disease she identified was…
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Elizabeth Casson
Victoria BatesUnited Kingdom Dr. Elizabeth Casson (1881–1954) is often overlooked in the history of medicine and the medical humanities. Despite being awarded an OBE and being amongst the first female doctors in the UK, scholarship on her work has largely been confined to small pamphlets or local histories. However, such focused biographical approaches overlook the…
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Madge Thurlow Macklin: medical genetics
William Leeming Canada Madge Thurlow Macklin Most histories on the subject say that the name “medical genetics” was coined in 1932 by Madge Thurlow Macklin.1 But as it so happens, the term first appears in a book by the English polymath Lancelot Hogben, Genetic Principles in Medicine and Social Science: “Whatever views one may entertain…
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Virginia Apgar: our Jimmy
Yasaswi Paruchuri Michigan, United States Virginia Apgar (1909- 1974) Known for developing the Apgar score, a measurement of newborn management, Dr. Virginia Apgar (1909- 1974) was often the only woman in a room of professional peers. Dr. Apgar developed the scoring strategy, “to find a way to get doctors to pay attention to the…