Marine biologist Pat Ralph specialised in marine hydroids, which before she began publishing were little studied in New Zealand; she published five seminal papers on the thecate hydroids of New Zealand between 1957 and 1961. Her pioneering work won worldwide recognition and in 1962 she received the rarely given DSc; she was the first woman on the staff of Victoria University College to receive the degree.
The letters she received over 40 years are an invaluable historical record of hepaticology during that time. Working from home at her ‘moss bench’, her microscope in the light of a window and her typewriter on the dining-room table, Amy Hodgson published more than 30 papers between 1930 and 1972. She described two new families of liverworts and nine new genera; most have stood the test of time.
She is credited with modernising the Auckland YWCA, so that it was fully part of the secular world while retaining its Christian roots.
Olga Sansom’s contribution to natural science had been recognised by the Southland branch of the Royal Society of New Zealand in 1960 when it made her a life member. The Southland Museum and Art Gallery similarly honoured her in 1966. In 1973 her achievements gained international attention when she was included in the first edition of The world who’s who of women. Her services to New Zealand were acknowledged in 1979 when she received the Queen’s Service Medal.
Her ability and dedication to her task overcame initial opposition and became a beacon for others, both Māori and Pākehā, when a Māori health nursing service was officially established in 1911.
In addition to her work for penal reform, Blanche Baughan was an outspoken opponent of capital punishment, a financial supporter of the Red Cross and a member of the Akaroa Borough Council. Baughan was recognised for her contribution to social services with the award of the King George V Jubilee Medal in 1935. For her literary work she deserves recognition for indicating new directions in the nation’s literary history and as a significant harbinger of change in early New Zealand poetry.
American physician Mary Putnam Jacobi was the first woman to graduate from the New York College of Pharmacy, and the first woman to study medicine at the University of Paris.
American geologist, Bascom was the second woman to earn Ph.D in geology in the United States, in 1893. She became the first woman to work for the United States Geological Survey in 1896.
Italian physician and educator, founder of the Montessori System of teaching children
English physician and pioneer of women’s rights.