Elsie Mary Griffin
She is credited with modernising the Auckland YWCA, so that it was fully part of the secular world while retaining its Christian roots.
Category Archives: Science
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Olga Sansom
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.
Ākenehi Hei
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.
Blanche Edith Baughan
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.
Mary Putnam Jacobi
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.
Florence Bascom
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.
Maria Tecla Artemisia Montessori
Italian physician and educator, founder of the Montessori System of teaching children
Dr Elizabeth Garrett Anderson
English physician and pioneer of women’s rights.
June Opie
June Opie was a polio survivor, clinical psychologist, writer and broadcaster who overcame discrimination against the disabled to achieve professional and personal success. Her memoir, Over my dead body (1957), was an international best-seller and brought her widespread fame.
Marie Boivin
French midwife who invented the pelvimeter and vaginal speculum, which are used to dilate the vagina and examine the cervix. She discovered causes of miscarriages and was the first to use a stethoscope to listen to the fetal heartbeat. Her books Mémorial de l’art des accouchements (The Art of Obstretrics, 1812) and Traité pratique des maladies de l’utérus et de ses annexes (1833, on diseases of the uterus) were important texts for medical students and midwives.