There are a lot of intelligent women all around the world, and some of those intelligent women are intended to go into medical school. Many people think men doctors are the ones able to handle strong things like being a surgeon or diagnosing diseases. According to the book, 100 Most Important Women in the 20th century, there is a struggle of women doctors and nurses succeeding in their profession and Virginia Apgar is one of those woman who went through this struggle. Clara Baton is another woman who is very inspirational and the founder of the Red Cross. A more recent inspiring woman is Dr. Roberta Bondar. Not a lot of people recognize the historical accomplishments and impacts of women as much as men’s accomplishments. All of these women made an impact in some way, and not everyone takes the time to appreciate what they and other females have done.
One of many struggles women who wanted to pursue the medical field had to go through, was being blocked from what they first intended to be. According to the book, 100 Most Important Women in the 20th century, many females who wanted to be important doctors like surgeons, had to change because men and/or other people including family, friends, and peers convinced them to
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become a nurse instead. Most men and women both earn the same degrees and specialties in medical school, but women get assigned less important roles. Virginia Apgar, born June 7, 1909, in Westfield, New Jersey, was a childbirth nurse during the 1930’s.
She was inspired to become a surgeon from observing how immediately after birth, infants tended to be moved off to nurseries to be examined later. Even though she won a rare surgical internship after graduating from medical school, she was advised to change specialties. According to an article from Wisance.com, in 1952, she began testing newborns one minute and five minutes after birth to determine if they needed immediate care. About 10 years later, the medical community made a backronym to remember the criteria scored: appearance, pulse, grimace, activity, and respiration. Now many childbirth nurse take after what Virginia’s method
was. Another inspiring woman, is Clarissa Barton also known as Clara. She was the founder of the Red Cross and was a nurse in many wars. Before she founded Red Cross, Clara graduated from Mount Holyoke College, in 1929 in South Hadley, Massachusetts. She then served as a nurse for the injured men in wars. Her understanding for the needs of people in distress and the ways in which she could provide help to them guided her throughout her life. Clara risked her life to bring supplies and support to the soldiers in the field during the Civil War and even helped to search for missing soldiers. According to Biography.com “Clara Barton is an angel of the battlefield.” She earned this title for all the time and effort she contributed to the soldiers in war. According to American Red Cross biography on Clara Barton, in the year 1869, she visited Europe in search of retirement. Clara was introduced to a bigger field of service through the Red Cross in Geneva, Switzerland. She started by taking supplies to the young men of the Sixth Massachusetts Infantry who had been attacked in Baltimore, Maryland. Clara offered personal support to the men in hopes of keeping their spirits up, she read to them, wrote letters for them, listened to their personal problems, and prayed with them. At the age of 60, in 1881 she founded the American Red Cross and led it for the next 23 years. She knew, however, that where she was needed most was not at Red Cross but on the battlefields where the suffering was greatest. Although Clara Barton enjoyed being a nurse and wanted to be one, she showed that she was a very strong woman by starting a huge medical organization. The Red Cross today is now huge and popular. “By the force of her personal example, she opened paths to the new field of volunteer service. Her intense devotion to serving others resulted in enough achievements to fill several ordinary lifetimes," according to the Red Cross website. A more recent female doctor, is Dr. Roberta Bondar, the first female Canadian astronaut and neurologist to go into space. According to the website Dr. Roberta Bondar, she knew she wanted to be a doctor in space since day one and nothing could get in her way. As the Canadian Space Agency article on Dr. Roberta stated, she attended elementary and secondary school in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario. She received a Bachelor of Science degree in zoology and agriculture from the University of Guelph in 1968, a Master of Science degree in experimental pathology from the University of Western Ontario in 1971, a doctorate in neurobiology from the University of Toronto in 1974, a Doctor of Medicine degree from McMaster University in 1977 and was admitted as a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada in neurology in 1981. She also has certification in scuba diving and parachuting. Roberta isn’t in labs all day and studying, she also enjoys canoeing, biking, target shooting (rifle, handgun), fishing, cross-country skiing, hiking, and even flying hot air balloons. Dr. Bondar received even more accomplishments, some of them were the same as what a man would receive, but she received a lot for being a woman and standing up for females. Women can be awarded the same degrees and specialties because according to the website, Canadian Space Agency, in 1992, she was awarded honorary degrees from the following Universities: Saint Mary's University, McMaster University, the University of Regina, the University of Calgary, the University of Ottawa and the University of Toronto. According to the same website, Canadian Space Agency, she was awarded, A Medical Research Council Fellowship in 1981 and a Career Scientist Award from the Ontario Ministry of Health in 1982. She was named the Canadian Federation of University Women in 1985. Dr. Bondar was also a writer and was co-recipient of the F.W. (Casey) Baldwin Award in 1985 for the best paper in the Canadian Aeronautics and Space Journal. and was made honorary life member of Girl Guides of Canada in 1986. All of these awards show just how serious this woman takes to be a doctor in space. For her space missions Dr. Roberta Bondar’s was given the role as a neurologist. As Healthline.com definition states, a neurologist is a doctor who specializes in treating diseases of the nervous system. This complex system involves the spinal cord and the brain. Dr. Roberta Bondar only went on one mission, STS-42, but she was the first female Canadian astronaut and first neurologist to go into space. She shows female strength in an outstanding way. There are countless important women doctors who today’s people don’t know about because they don’t care or have never been told about. Some women are very inspirational and motivating, each person should research the outstanding female doctors that not everyone is told about. Virginia Apgar’s story and how women were advised to change to a nurse, should help women today not let someone tell them they’re too weak to become their passion. Being the founder of the Red Cross, and for it being such a huge organization, is astounding because the founder was a Clara Barton a woman. Also, all the awards and honors Dr. Roberta Bondar received is very impressive and shows female intelligence. As some people look to men for help, they aren’t realizing the amazing, strong, and talented women right in front of them.
Even in the medical field, male doctors were dominate to the hundreds of well educated midwives. “Male physicians are easily identified in town records and even in Martha’s diary, by the title “Doctor.” No local woman can be discovered that way” (Ulrich, 1990, pg.61). Martha was a part of this demoralized group of laborers. Unfortunately for her, “in twentieth-century terms, the ability to prescribe and dispense medicine made Martha a physician, while practical knowledge of gargles, bandages, poultices and clisters, as well as willingness to give extended care, defined her as a nurse” (Ulrich, 1990, pg.58). In her diary she even portrays doctors, not midwives, as inconsequential in a few medical
Have you ever wondered how women helped our country? There was and still are women who changed or change the world today. Like Shirley Muldowney,and Rose Will Monroe, or Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Susan B. Anthony, maybe Hillary Clinton. Some of these women changed little things and some changed big things, but they all made a difference in their own way.
Furthermore, as war led to an increase in the number of injured men, there was a shortage of nurses, and women swarmed into medical universities to receive their educations so they could serve as nurses. In his “Universities, medical education, and women,” Watts states that when it was observed that women could “join the popular and increasing band of professional nurses. women were striving to gain university admission” (Watts 307).
Her plan was a success and she was able to start her own women’s nursing corps. Because of their efforts and determination, those two women were acknowledged for helping allowing women to become nurses
However, these women were not accepted right away by male doctors in the hospitals. Some male doctors thought of women as useless (Barton, 1892) and that they "were intruding into their domain and using scarce resources," (Freemon, 1998). Despite the power struggle between the male doctors and women nurses, the women nurses were soon known as “The nurses, consolers, and saviours of men.” (Barton, 1892). Shortly after the Civil War began, both sides realized that they were running short on staffing for their hospitals.
Elizabeth Blackwell was notably one of the most influential people to both medicine and women’s rights. Although her most famous achievement was being the first woman to graduate from medical school, Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell's accomplishments did not end there, she devoted her life to helping others-both in healing and in education, and also with the help of colleagues founded the New York Infirmary for Women and Children. She was one of the most influential women of her time.
Mary Richmond and Jane Addams are two very influential women in social work history. They helped shape what social work is today. Mary Richmond helped with her charity organizations and Jane Addams with the settlement movement. Not only did they help shape the history of social work, but they paved the road for the generalist practice as well with their work at the micro and macro levels. They are two very different women with two very different approaches.
Often historical events leading up to the twentieth century are dominated by men and the role of women is seemingly non-existent outside of reproduction. When one thinks of notable and memorable names and events of the Revolution, men are the first to be mentioned. The American Revolution was mainly dominated by men including George Washington, Samuel Adams, and Benjamin Franklin. There is no denying that men were vitally important to the American Revolution, but what were the women doing? Often overlooked, the women of the Revolution played a key role in the outcome of the nation. The women of the American Revolution, although not always recognized, were an influential society that assumed risky jobs like soldiers, as well as involvement
People have always been divided or classified into two simple categories, male or female. Many of them may have heard at some point in their lives the ongoing discussion of feminism, but not all have taken a deep look at what has been done and has happened for everybody to have reached such level that women like men are viewed in most and many ways equal. Amelia Earhart was a person that changed and proved the ability, responsibility, and equality of women. Amelia Earhart's expedition across the Atlantic Ocean affected many women's lives because it allowed her to keep doing what she had always desired, she became a role model for other women, and she changed society's perspective of women.
There are many women who had huge influences in the advancement of heath and medicine. Many people don’t realize how much women do and how much they have contributed to the medical world and its advancements. From Lillian D. Wald, who worked with the less fortunate and children in schools, to Virginia Apgar, who worked with mothers and their newborns and also came up with the “Apgar Score,” and Eku Esu-Williams who is an immunologist and an AIDS Educator. Even though women did so much, many people were sexist and didn’t want to acknowledge what they did or give them the chance to do things, such as become doctors. I want to inform people on how much these women have contributed to the world of healthcare and medicine so that people won’t be so sexist towards women.
The medical field has a very diverse group of careers that all go toward helping people live healthier, better, and longer lives. Women, specifically, need the service of one important person in the medical field, and that person would be a doctor known as an obstetrician/gynecologist or OBGYN.
Along with the belief of nursing being a career choice more female-directed, there was also the repeated mention of the career being for middle-class women (Price, 2008). Historically, women have been the dominant face of nursing and it has always been considered a suitable career for women, whereas most careers in the past would never be acceptable for a female. For some of the female students who were interviewed, this stereotype was part of a difference in choosing nursing. They did not want to be thought of as stereotypical women, and be cast into a mould of what most women choose (Price, Hall, Angus, & Peter, 2013). In a modern society, more and more women are wishing to push the boundaries on what used to be referred to as male-dominated territory.
However, women desired a higher education. Elizabeth Blackwell is a prime example of women’s fight for a medical degree, one of the first STEM environments available to women. In order to kick-start her education she wrote to all of the doctors that she knew, requesting advice and help. However, most of the doctors replied that they thought it impossible, that a woman would not be able to endure the rigors of a medical education, and that they feared the competition that women doctors would bring. Elizabeth persisted, finally making her way to Philadelphia, a city famous for its study in medicine, to stay with Dr. Elder, one of the few supporters of her education. Once here she continued writing letters and actually found many friends who agreed to support her cause, but unfortunately universities were not included in this list of friends. Elizabeth then pursued an education at the University of Geneva in New York where the Medical Faculty and students agreed to accept her. While at first the university cared about the press coverage that Elizabeth’s spot would bring, she eventually established her rightful place as a student there. Although she encountered some resentment among the wives of doctors and other people living in the small town, Elizabeth ...
in her life, but most importantly she inspired other women to be independent and to improve their lives.
She first developed an interest in nursing during World War I because she felt an inner need to help wounded and sick soldiers (“Virginia Avenue Henderson – the mother,” 1996). She started her nursing career in 1918 at the US Army School of Nursing and later became a nursing instructor at the Norfolk Protestant Hospital in Virginia (Smith, 1997). Henderson received her education during the empiricist era of nursing, which focused on needs however, she felt her theoretical ideas developed and advanced throughout her nursing career and experiences in the medical surgical unit. This is where she realized the importance of helping the patient return to independence so that recovery can continue after hospitalization. Henderson became familiar first with physiological principals while obtaining her graduate education. The understanding of these components became the major foundation for her care in nursing practice. (McEwen & Wills,