Elizabeth Kenny developed a new treatment for poliomyelitis during the 1930s and established clinics in Brisbane with the backing of the State government but opposition from the medical profession. In 1940 she moved to the USA where her methods were widely acclaimed.
Ulai Trudy Otobed is a renowned Palauan physician and a groundbreaking figure in the field of medicine. In 1965, she became the first Micronesian woman to qualify as a doctor.
Hulda Kamboi Shipanga was a Namibian nurse, midwife, and advisor to the Namibian Ministry of Health.
Aoua Keïta was a Malian midwife, activist, and politician, recognized as a prominent figure in Mali’s struggle for independence, trade unionism, and feminism.
Eritrean figure writer, activist and nurse whose life and work have been shaped by her involvement in the Eritrean People’s Liberation Front (EPLF) during the war for Eritrean independence from Ethiopia.
Dame Hilda Louisa Bynoe was a distinguished and pioneering Caribbean woman whose multifaceted contributions significantly impacted the region’s development.
Pioneering Bissau-Guinean politician, physician, and women’s rights advocate
Virdimura, a Jewish woman from Catania, Italy, became the first “ducturissa” or female doctor.
Florence Rena Sabin was the first woman to hold a full professorship at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, the first woman elected to the National Academy of Sciences, and the first woman to lead a department at the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research. In her retirement years, she transitioned into a role as a public health activist in Colorado.
In 1984, Blackburn and Carol W. Greider jointly discovered telomerase, the enzyme responsible for telomere replenishment. This groundbreaking achievement led to their winning the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2009, with Blackburn making history as the first Australian woman Nobel laureate.