Although men’s names clearly predominate in the history of medicine, as they often do in other histories, women have long been involved in healthcare and, in fact, more than half the people involved in healthcare have always been women.  For centuries women have provided obstetric care and they have given everyday nursing care to those who were ill.  Even among our primitive ancestors, the wise women gathered various roots and herbs to prepare infusions with medicinal properties.  Certainly, some of the interest in formal practice of medicine among women has led quite naturally from their traditional roles as caregivers and nurturers within the families.  However, it was not until 1889 when a group of feminist fundraisers offered the Johns Hopkins University an endowment of half a million dollars contingent upon modification of the terms for admission, namely that women be admitted on the same terms as men.  Four years later the school enrolled its first co-educational class and it has been a leader in providing opportunities for women ever since.

  Women were ostracized from male dominated groups and some even attempted to discourage women by proclaiming that no woman of “true delicacy” would consider attending lectures with men and they declared their unwillingness to “mix with any woman who ‘unsexed’ herself, thereby sacrificing her own modesty”.  Other male dominated physician groups stated that they worried that the presence of women would “feminize” their profession, which they felt required strength, control and efficiency. 

  For many years the medical establishment referred to women physicians as “irregular physicians”.  As many women were excluded from the mainstream of the medical profession, they tended to gravitate toward alternative types of medicine and of the approximately 2,500 homeopathic physicians in the United States in 1860, two-thirds were women.

  Clearly, the failure to recognize women and their contributions in medicine has not been unique to the medical profession.  One could safely make the same remark regarding nearly any of the traditional professions.  Although it is regrettable that our forefathers were not very receptive, we cannot change history but our attitudes and actions now will write the pages of history for tomorrow.  If your physician, nurse practitioner or nurse is a woman, or a man for that matter, let them know how much you respect and value them.