Strong Voices

In the field of medicine, women have strived for equality with their male counterparts. Throughout history, there have been women, including those featured in this exhibition, who have raised their voices to speak out about women-specific aspects of medicine, such as equality in education and equal access to healthcare. In the nineteenth century, Harriet K. Hunt advocated for women to gain entry into medical school. Dr. Marie Zakrzewska voiced the need for hospitals where female physicians could get clinical training and female patients could have access to female physicians. This resulted in the founding of the New England Hospital for Women and Children in 1862, the first hospital in New England and the second in the United States to be run by women.

The Archives for Women in Medicine contains many examples of the strong voices of women in medicine. Dr. Myrtelle Canavan, a 1905 graduate of the Woman’s Medical College of Pennsylvania, voiced her disagreement with segregated education for women. This statement vocalized the historic stigma many women physicians encountered from male colleagues who felt their segregated training was not up to the standard of other medical schools. In a letter to Dr. Frank Richardson, Dr. Anne Forbes felt compelled to voice her disagreements with his paper on breastfeeding based on her medical training and her experience raising five children.