Celebrating Women’s History Month: 10 women of medicine and science that will knock your socks off

Did you know that March is Women’s History Month? It is, indeed.
 
In doing research for my book, When Medicine Meets Holy Matrimony: A Surgeon’s Wife Tells It Like It Is, I discovered several women of medicine and the sciences that impressed the heck out of me. Some names may be familiar and some may be new to you.
 
10 women of medicine and science that will knock your socks off:

Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell

1.     Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell: Dr. Blackwell paved the way for women physicians in America by becoming the first woman to receive an M.D. degree from an American medical school in 1849. Before earning this coveted title and graduating first in her class, no less, Dr. Blackwell faced rejection after rejection from U.S. medical schools. She was even advised to travel to Paris and disguise herself as a man to obtain her medical training, which she declined to do. Dr. Blackwell went on to found a full-scale hospital which still exists today as the New York University Downtown Hospital and also founded the Woman’s Medical College of New York Infirmary in 1868, giving women the opportunity for a medical education when they were denied admittance to the all-male medical colleges of the period. Dr. Blackwell dedicated her life to championing women and fighting for women’s rights.  

2.     Dr. Rebecca Crumpler: Dr. Crumpler is distinguished as the first African American woman in the U.S. to earn a medical degree in 1864. Following the end of the Civil War, Dr. Crumpler joined other African American physicians caring for freed slaves who would otherwise have no access to medical care. In 1883 Dr. Crumpler published her “Book of Medical Discourses”, an exceptionally rare accomplishment for an African American in her day and age. Most of what we know of Dr. Crumpler comes from this book. Unfortunately, there are no surviving photographs or images of Dr. Crumpler. 

Clara Barton

3.     Clara Barton: Clarissa Harlowe Barton, who preferred to be called Clara, put herself directly in the line of danger during the Civil War to comfort, nurse and cook for the wounded. She founded the American Red Cross in 1881 at the age of 60 and led it for the next 23 years. Her personal passion and gift for service will always be remembered. 

Dr. Bertha Van Hoosen. Photo source: https://www.amwa-doc.org/faces/dr-bertha-van-hoosen/

4.     Dr. Bertha Van Hoosen: This was a woman with a fighting spirit. Dr. Van Hoosen earned both her bachelor’s degree and her medical degree, despite her parents’ refusal to finance her education. And although her appointment was opposed by the all-male faculty, she became a professor of gynecology at the Illinois University Medical School. She became increasingly vocal about the medical establishment’s discrimination toward women, and was barred from the Chicago Gynecological and Obstetrical Society. In 1915, she gathered a meeting of women in Chicago that eventually led to the formation of the American Medical Women’s Association. She served as the organization’s first president.

Rosalind Franklin

5.     Rosalind Franklin: Even if you don’t know her name, you know her work. Rosalind Franklin was a brilliant chemist whose studies of x-ray diffraction provided critical clues into the structure of DNA, the building blocks of life. Unfortunately, she was not recognized for her contributions until long after her death. Rosalind succumbed to ovarian cancer at a young age. Her colleagues, James Watson, Francis Crick and Maurice Wilkins, were awarded the Nobel Prize for discovering the double helix after viewing x-ray photographs of DNA taken by Rosalind. 

Dr. Mary Edwards Walker

6.     Dr. Mary Edwards Walker: Dr. Walker was both a physician and a women’s rights advocate. She was the first woman awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for her work as a surgeon during the Civil War. Although her name (along with others) was removed from the honoree list in 1917 during a period of confusion and turmoil regarding eligibility, she refused to give up her medal. She continued to wear it proudly for the rest of her life. Many years after her death, thanks to efforts of her family and a reappraisal of her work by Congress, the honor was finally restored to Dr. Walker in 1977.

Dr. Virginia Apgar

7.     Dr. Virginia Apgar: Dr. Apgar was the first woman to become a full professor at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. Parents also know her as the woman behind the Apgar Score, the first standardized method for evaluating a newborn baby’s transition to life outside the womb. 

Dr. Mary Amanda Dixon Jones. Photo source: https://cfmedicine.nlm.nih.gov/physicians/biography_176.html

8.   Dr. Mary Amanda Dixon Jones: Dr. Dixon Jones became internationally known as a surgeon in obstetrics and gynecology at a time when women physicians struggled to build careers in the field (during the Civil War era). She was the first person in the U.S. to propose and perform a full hysterectomy (surgical removal of the uterus) to treat uterine tumors. 

Dr. Leona Baumgartner. Photo source: https://cfmedicine.nlm.nih.gov/physicians/biography_28.html

9.     Dr. Leona Baumgartner: Dr. Baumgartner’s passion for public health stemmed partially from her pediatric home visits to some of the poorest areas of Depression-Era New York in the mid-1930s, where she connected the dots between poverty and ill-health. She served as the first female commissioner of New York City’s Department of Health from 1954-1962, leveraging her role to bring basic health and hygiene advice to millions of Americans via frequent TV and radio broadcasts, as well as sending health care professionals to visit schools and churches. 

10.     Madame Marie Curie: Mme. Curie is a household name and a winner of two Nobel Prizes for her work in radioactivity. But you may not know that she won her second Nobel Prize in the midst of tragedy. She shared her first Nobel Prize in the field of nuclear physics with her husband Pierre Curie and colleague Henry Becquerel in 1903. In 1906, her beloved Pierre was killed after stepping in front of a horse-drawn carriage, leaving Marie alone to raise two young daughters and to carry on their legacy. She won her second Nobel Prize in chemistry in 1911 for her discovery of radium and polonium. After a lifetime dedicated to scientific discovery that led to breakthroughs in modern medicine, especially in oncology, Mme. Curie died of complications caused by prolonged exposure to radiation.

What women inspire you, historically or present day? Leave your comments!

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