Science > Medicine Archives - Page 52 of 53

Anastasia Golovina

Anastasia Golovina was Bulgaria’s first woman doctor, earning her doctorate from the Sorbonne in 1878.

Tebello Nyokong

South African chemist and professor Tebello Nyokong is helping to pioneer a safer method of cancer detection and photodynamic therapy, a treatment without the harmful side effects of chemotherapy.

Dr Yvonne Sylvain was the first female doctor from Haiti and the first woman accepted into the University of Haiti Medical School, earning her medical degree in 1940. She played a vital role in providing improved medical access and tools for Haitian citizens and was a leading advocate for the physical, economical, social and political equality of Haitian women.

Dr Vera Peters

Canadian oncologist and clinical investigator Dr Mildred Vera Peters was told to “go do women’s work” after upstaging the medical community in her treatment of Hodgkin’s disease. So she revolutionized breast cancer treatment through years of painstaking, meticulous work.

Tsai Ah-hsin

Tsai Ah-hsin was the first female physician in colonial Taiwan’s first female physician. She graduated from the Tokyo Women’s Medical College in 1921, then completed her residency at the Taihoku Hospital in Japanese Taiwan and founded her own hospital at Taichu in 1925. She created a seminar to train midwives in obstetrics, which was offered through her hospital. She had to end the seminar in 1938 as the Japanese, who had invaded northern China in 1937, came to her seminar and forced some of her students to work for them as nurses on the front lines.
The serial drama “Wave Washing Sands,” based on her life, won Best Serial Drama at the Golden Bell Awards (celebrating Taiwanese television) in 2005.

Dr Yin May

Yin May, the first Burmese obstetrician and gynecologist, founded and ran the country’s main maternity hospital during the Japanese occupation of Burma. She was the first person to perform the Caesarian section in Burma and is known for her research on amoebic vaginitis, also called May’s disease.
While pregnant and separated from her family, Yin May founded the country’s primary maternity hospital during the Japanese occupation (1942–1945), working long hours with staff who had no OB/GYN experience. Burma had lost its main maternity hospital, Lady Dufferin Maternity Hospital, on 25 December 1941 due to Japanese aerial bombing and then the Japanese army commandeered Rangoon General Hospital for their use only. She later co-founded wartime medical and nursing schools (1943–1945). After World Wai II, she ran Lady Dufferin Maternity Hospital from 1946 to 1959, and was head of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology of the Faculty of Medicine of Rangoon University from 1947 to 1959. Under her leadership, Dufferin became a maternity hospital recognized by the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists in 1957.

Angélique de Coudray

In 1759, French king Louis XV launched a project to reduce infant mortality in the country and commissioned Parisian midwife Angélique du Coudray to train peasant women as midwifes. From 1760 to 1783, she trained approximately 10,000 women across France, visiting poor women in rural areas and sharing her extensive knowledge with them. Presumably the women she taught also passed those skills on to outhers in following years. Du Coudray also invented the first lifesize obstetrical mannequin, so the women could practice mock births, and published a popular midwifery textbook, Abrégé de l’art des accouchements (The Art of Obstetrics, 1759). Due to the lack of accurate data collection, it is impossible to quote statistics about infant mortality rates (which were frequently underreported in the 1700s and earlier), but it seems inarguable that du Coudray must have directly and indirectly saved countless lives, of both mothers and children.

Thung Sin Nio

Betsy Thung Sin Nio was an Indonesian-Dutch women’s rights activist, medical doctor, economist and politician. As the daughter of a wealthy and progressive Peranakan family of the Cabang Atas gentry in Batavia, she was encouraged to pursue education, which was unusual for Indonesian women at the time. After completing high school, she earned her qualifications as a bookkeeper, but became a teacher instead because social norms prevented women from doing office work. In 1924 Thung enrolled at the Netherlands School of Business in Rotterdam to study economics, then went on to earn a master’s degree and a doctorate in economics. She enrolled at the University of Amsterdam in 1932 to pursue her medical studies.
During that time, Thung met Dutch physician and suffragist Aletta Jacobs, who encouraged her to become involved in the Dutch women’s movement and the Association for Women’s Interests and Equal Citizenship. Thung became an activist for improving the socio-economic and civil status of women, writing articles for feminist journals in both the Netherlands and the Dutch East Indies. After completing her medical degree in 1938, Thung returned to Batavia and opened a medical practice focusing on the health of women and children. She continued her feminist activism and fought for women’s suffrage; when the government proposed that only European women be given the rights to vote and stand in elections, Thung successfully campaigned for voting rights for educated women regardless of their race.
During World War II, she maintained her private practice, volunteered at a local public hospital and opened a private hospital to treat European patients. After the war ended, she became a medical officer for the Jakarta school system and entered local politics. She was elected as the first woman member of the Municipal Council of Jakarta in 1949, representing the Persatuan Tionghoa. From 1949 to 1965, she traveled abroad on numerous occasions on behalf of her country, including serving as a translator for trade delegations and as an economist on fact-finding missions to Russia and China. Following Indonesia’s 1965 coup d’état and the shift away from communism, she was released from government work. In 1968, when assimilationist policies were introduced to force Chinese citizens to take Indonesian names, Thung permanently immigrated to the Netherlands, where she continued to work as a physician.

Adah Thoms

Adah Belle Samuels Thoms was an African-American nurse who co-founded the National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses and served as president from 1916 to1923. She was the acting director of the Lincoln School for Nurses (New York) and fought for African-Americans to serve as American Red Cross nurses during World War I and later as U.S. Army Nurse Corps nurses starting with the flu epidemic in December 1918. She was one of the first nurses inducted into the American Nurses Association Hall of Fame when it was established in 1976.

Minnie Fisher Cunningham

Born: March 19 1882, United States Died: 9 December 1964 Country most active: United States Also known as: NA Minnie Fisher Cunningham was an American suffrage activist, who was the […]