Women Physicians at Baylor University Medical Center

Abstract

Human kind might be divided into three groups-men, women, and women physicians.-SIR WILLIAM OSLER HISTORY OF WOMEN IN HEALINGThe early Greeks invoked both gods and goddesses in their healing rituals. Demeter was the caregiver of women and children; Persephone could cure illnesses of teeth; Athena cured blindness; Medea and Circe knew poisons and their antidotes; and Isis, the imported goddess of the Egyptians portrayed as a black raven, was believed to be the greatest healer of all. Even the Hippocratic Oath begins, "I swear by Apollo the physician [a god], by Asclepius [a god], by Hygeia [goddess of prevention, sanitation, and nutrition] and Panacea [goddess of cure], and by all the gods and goddesses making them my witnesses, that I will fulfill according to my ability and judgment this oath and covenant." Early healers in Greece were as likely to be women as men, and Greek women healers were keepers of the snakes. To this day, the snake-entwined staff represents medicine.In later Greek times, women were increasingly restricted from the practice of healing. One of the better-known women Greek physicians was Agnodice. She was trained by the master physician Herophilus and was very capable. However, she had to disguise herself as a man to perform her profession in the third century BC, when women were barred from practicing medicine in Greece. Legend says that when she was forced to stand trial for practicing medicine, women patients ran to her support and threatened divorce and withholding of marital enjoyments if she were not allowed to continue her practice. The women prevailed, and Agnodice subsequently had a long career.In the Roman era, women from aristocratic families practiced a form of domestic medicine, often prescribing medicine and potions for their families and domestic workers. Galen collected what he felt were the most efficacious prescriptions. His works include prescriptions by women matriarchs: Origenia for diarrhea, Eugerasia for nephritis, and Antiochis for chest pain and

The Only Woman in the Room: Oral Histories of Senior Women Physicians in a Midwestern City

“…18 The few available oral histories of women in 20th-century medicine focus on individuals with the most distinguished careers. [19][20][21] We sought to collect recollections from a diverse group of women physicians who entered medical school before 1975 and participated in the first wave of the current transition of the profession toward greater gender equity.…”