Women in Medicine

Question 1

Metrodora

Answer 1

Greek physician c. 200-400 CE
Author of the oldest medical book written by a woman “On the Diseases and Cures of Women” referenced frequently by other medical writers

women were excluded from formal training
-but they did practice medicine for home remedies, herbalists, nuns, sick-nursing, wet-nursing, minor surgeries, midwifery

Question 2

Midwives

Answer 2

• legitimacy through relational authority
• must have given birth
• seen as “traditional” healers
• 1928: first professional organization
• rapid growth in 1970s and 80s (more accessible; pushback against medicalized birth)
• 1990s: neonatal/maternal outcomes come under scrutiny by obstetricians

Question 3

Nursing

Answer 3

• seen as an extension of social role as carers/nurturers

- first significant inroads into formal medical practices

Question 4

Florence Nightingale

Answer 4

• 1820-1910
• created new system of rigorous formal training (took nursing out of the home)
• served in Crimean War 1853-1856
• Lamp ceremony, Nightingale Day, Nightingale Pledge
• legacy is debated (claimed other achievements? meglomaniac?)

Question 5

Clara Barton 1821-1912

Answer 5

• founded International Red Cross in 1863

- supposedly neutral, allowed to visit POW

Question 6

Elizabeth Blackwell

Answer 6

• first woman to obtain medical degree in US

- started as nurse

Question 7

James Miranda Barry 1789-1865

Answer 7

• disguised herself as a man until she retired
• served in India and South Africa
• allegedly the first to perform C-section in 1816
• first Canadian female doctor

Question 8

Emily Howard Stowe

Answer 8

• first recognzied female doctor
• Canadian colleges wouldn’t accept => enrolled in NY Medical School for Women
• set up practice in Toronto without lisence
• foudned Women’s Medical College Toronto 1883
• founded Toronto Women’s Literacy Club; Canada’s first suffragette group 1867

Question 9

Elizabeth Garret Anderson

Answer 9

• not accept into medical school, so she enrolled as a nurse and attended men’s medical lectures
• takes Society of Apothecaries exam in 1865 (bc of lack of gender ban), opened pharmacy and diagnosed through pharmacy
• eventually became licensed doctor
• mid-1990s, women gained the right to study for the same qualifications (thanks to WWI - need for doctors and decline in male population)