Only a handful of women medics, who found their way into postal stamps

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Today many countries enrol more women than men in their medical schools. India reached this landmark in 2011. Among OECD countries, these proportions are highest in the Baltics (Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia), where more than two-thirds of all doctors are women. Bottom four in this list are Japan, Korea, Luxembourg and the United States. In these bottom-four countries, only one in three or four entrants to a medical school is a female. Some more recent postage stamps depict women-doctors, and quite exclusively. However this was not always so.

Historic insights into invisibility of women-doctors

Throughout ancient and medieval history, there were only a handful of known woman-doctors. Their contributions seem to be overshadowed by their fathers or husbands. Introduction of universities, and a system of licensure led to their more systemic exclusion. However, some women continued to practice under the radar, or as a midwife. Lack of encouragement, and even censure were usual tools for this perpetual discrimination.

Dorothea Erxleben was first qualified and licensed woman-doctor in the world. Daughter of a physician, she obtained a special permission of King Frederick of Prussia to enrol in a medical school in 1741. Interrupted by marriage, childbirths, and death of her father and husband – she graduated in 1754. Next woman-doctor in Germany would be licensed only a century later.

Marie Durocher (Brazil 1834), Elizabeth Blackwell (New York 1849), Ann Preston (Pennsylvania 1850), and Rebecca Lee Crumpler (Boston 1867) were first woman doctors in the Americas. Ann Preston graduated from the first batch of Women’s medical college of Pennsylvania, and would later become it’s dean. This college would become Alma-mater of first Indian woman doctor – Anandi Gopalrao Joshi.

First Woman doctors of India

Anandi Joshi (b1865) was married at age 9, and had a childbirth (who died ten days later) at age 14. This event was the beginning of her determination to become a doctor and quest for a formal education. She and her husband Gopalrao, moved from Kolhapur to Calcutta. Helped by Theodicia Carpenter an American missionary, Anandi and later her husband Gopalrao travelled to America. She graduated from Woman’s medical college in Philadelphia in 1886. In her class were Kei Okami and Sabat Islambooly first woman doctors from Japan and Syria. A famous picture of the three is legendary. Anandi returned to India the same year, was employed in Kolhapur, but succumbed to Tuberculosis in February 1887.

While first medical colleges opened in India in 1835, women were allowed medical education more than four decades later in Madras (1879), Calcutta (1880) and Bombay (1884). Kadambini Ganguly was first female medical graduate from India. She further studied in Edinburgh, Glasgow and Dublin, and returned to India in 1893. She served as director of Lady Dufferin hospital in Calcutta. Both Anandi Joshi and Kadambini Ganguly feature in Kavitha Rao’s book on First Lady doctors of India.

Many English and American women doctors established hospitals and dispensaries in India. Notable amongst these are Ida Scudder (CMC Vellore 1900), and Edith Mary Brown (Brown hospital, later CMC Ludhiana in 1894). Enrolment of women in medical schools in India increased in the coming years. After independence, it was 20.4% in 1960-61; 34% in 1990-91, and 51% in the year 2011.

Women doctors with a postage stamp

Many women who were first female providers in their countries are listed on this Wiki page. There are only a few who have a postage stamp on their names. Some of these are below.

Emma Constance Stone

Emma Constance Stone (b1856) born in Tasmania, she was forced to leave Australia to study medicine in 1882. At this time, universities in Australia would not admit women into the medicine course. She graduated in 1888 from Women’s Medical College at Pennsylvania. In 1890 when she returned to Australia, she became first woman doctor in the continent. By 1896, there were eleven women doctors in Melbourne, who together founded the first hospital for women. This hospital was renamed as Victoria hospital in 1901, and continued till its demolition in 1987.

Julieta Lanteri

Julieta Lanteri (b1873) was 6 when she immigrated with her parents from Italy to Argentina. In 1891 she was the first women to enrol in a college in Argentina, and in 1898 she earned a degree in Pharmacology from University of Buenos Aires. It was tough for women to enrol in medical school, and in 1907 when she graduated as a physician, she was the fifth women to do so in her country.

She was also a women’s rights activist, and in 1911 she became the first women to vote in any election in South America. However the same year, Argentine electoral law was changed and enrolment in a military service was a necessary requirement to vote. It was mandatory for men to serve in the army, and women were again eliminated from voting.

While Julieta continued her struggle for women rights, including a plea to enrol in the armed forces, she met a tragic death in 1932. She was hit by a motorist, and this was likely a political murder, rather than an accident. Women were allowed to vote in Argentina, only in 1947. In 2023, google had a Julieta Lanteri in a doodle.

Matilde Hidalgo

Matilde Hidalgo Navarro de Procel (b1889) was first woman to graduate from high school in Ecuador. Rejected and isolated by the society, who opposed her quest for higher education, she became first female doctor to graduate. In 1921, she joined doctorate program in Quito. Three years later, in 1924, she declared that she was going to vote in Ecuadorian elections. Fighting for her rights, she became first woman in entire Latin America to vote on 9th June 1924. Less than two decades later in 1941, she won an election to become a city administrator. She continued her studies and in 1949 became a specialist in pediatrics and Neurology. In 2019, Google released a doodle in her honour.

Anna Maria Dengel

Anna Maria Dengel (b1892)born in Austria, was a religious nun. She completed her medical education in 1919 from Ireland, and helped establish Mission hospital Rawalpindi, then in undivided India. She established Catholic Medical Missionaries, and campaigned throughout her life to bring more religious sisters to medical fold.

Sevala Zildzic

Like many others, Sevala Zildzic’s (b1903) quest for education was also met with resistance from society. She graduated from Zagreb in Croatia, and became first muslim woman to become a doctor in Yugoslavia. She continued to serve Sarajevo as a Gynecologist, till her death in 1978.

Australian women doctors in postage stamps

Jean Macnamara was born in 1899 in Victoria, Australia and graduated from Melbourne medical university in 1922. She was depicted in an Australian postage stamp issued in 1995. Macnamara specialised in Orthopedics, she was an authority on management of poliomyelitis in the pre-vaccination era. Jane Stocks Greig was first woman who graduated in Public health from Melbourne in 1910. She was one of the founders of a hospital for women and children in Melbourne.

Kate Isabel Campbell and Jean Macnamara, both graduated in the batch of 1922 from Melbourne, and together worked as paediatricians at this hospital. Kate Campbell discovered that over-oxygenation of premature babies rendered them blind. She was featured in a postage stamp set from Australia in 2012. Fiona Stanley is a living legend, who featured in a 2002 Australian postage stamp. She helped established Maternal and Child Health Research Database in Western Australia, and pioneered role of Population level databases for health planning.

Perceptions that took a while to change

Postal stamps of a country are an official endorsement of its policies and perceptions. Over the years, most postal stamps have had a male figure as a doctor, and female as a nurse. This trend has continued throughout 20th century, despite a large number of graduating women doctors. All the postage stamps in my previous blog-posts on ancient healers, traditional medicine, renascence, surgeons, physicians, microscopists, radiologists and even pharmacists have mostly men.

These depictions were a reflection of societal realities. Despite women pioneers in medical science, becoming a doctor was still a male bastion. Women in healthcare were nurses and helpers, rather than leaders or decision makers. While we have seen an enormous demographic shift in last half a century, postal equality is yet to be seen.

Women doctors in more recent postage issues

While individual women doctors were honoured in postage stamps in the 1990s, there are only some recent postal issues, that attempt to redefine gender perceptions.

This demographic change has its own history and struggle. Depiction of women as decision making health care providers is now a prominent theme.

In coming years, as more accomplishments are recognised, we shall have more of these issues. Watch this space for more !! Despite bridging of this gender-gap, proportion of women in leadership positions remains low.

Women in health-care led the women empowerment movement

Women’s rights movement started in early 20th century. Initial struggle was for equal voting rights. These campaigns led to observation of Women’s days and in 1911, many activists agreed upon 8th March as the date.

International Women’s Day (IWD) was marked for a first time by the United Nations in 1975. This was observed as International Women’s year. Later in December 1977, the General Assembly adopted a resolution proclaiming a United Nations Day for Women’s Rights and International Peace to be observed on any day of the year by Member States, in accordance with their historical and national traditions.

India has issued IWD miniature sheets and special covers. A view below is itself a testament to changing perceptions