{"id":6805,"date":"2017-10-03T14:43:42","date_gmt":"2017-10-03T14:43:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/aviewfromthebridge\/?p=6805"},"modified":"2017-10-03T14:43:42","modified_gmt":"2017-10-03T14:43:42","slug":"women-in-medicine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/aviewfromthebridge\/2017\/10\/03\/women-in-medicine\/","title":{"rendered":"Women in Medicine<\/em>: opening the clinic door"},"content":{"rendered":"

Posted on behalf of Heidi Ledford<\/em><\/strong><\/h3>\n
\"Flic<\/a>

Flic Gabbay, co-founder of the Society for Pharmaceutical Medicine, next to a bust of Cicely Saunders, founder of the hospice movement.{credit}John Chase (c) Royal College of Physicians{\/credit}<\/p><\/div>\n

Visitors stepping into the Royal College of Physicians<\/a> (RCP) in London are normally greeted by the sombre stares of imposing men, in portraits lining the walls. From today, women outshine them, in 26 photographic portraits of modern female clinicians ranged along the central stairwell. Each holds an image of a historical figure who inspired them.<\/p>\n

The exhibition, Women in Medicine: A Celebration<\/em><\/a>, comes as the RCP \u2014 which accredits UK physicians and represents over 30,000 doctors globally \u2014 readies for its 500th<\/sup> birthday in 2018. Over that time, it has had just three female presidents: unsurprising, given that women could not join until 1909.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The contemporary clinicians in the portraits are esteemed in their own right, and there is still plenty of trail left for them to blaze. But it is the historical photos that drew my eye.<\/p>\n

\"Fiona<\/a>

Fiona Caldicott, a past president of the Royal Society of Psychiatrists, holding a photograph of pioneering psychiatrist Helen Boyle.{credit}(c) Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust {\/credit}<\/p><\/div>\n

Recent years have brought a welcome spate of books, movies and exhibitions<\/a> dedicated to honouring pioneering women in science. The best of these, like the book<\/a> and film<\/a> Hidden Figures<\/em>, draw attention to forgotten achievements and struggles, and reveal a history that had, shockingly, gone untold. More often, such collections tend to sample from the same pantheon. And although Marie Curie and Rosalyn Franklin deserve their fame, I\u2019m often left with the feeling that we are overlooking important contributions from others.<\/p>\n

The RCP show steps outside this elite circle. Here is Helen Boyle<\/a>, one of the first women psychiatrists in Britain, who led the charge for early diagnosis and treatment of mental disorders near the end of the nineteenth century. Holding her photo is Fiona Caldicott<\/a>, a past president of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, and perhaps best known for her work on the 1997 Caldicott Report<\/a>, a guidance document about protecting confidential patient information.<\/p>\n

\"Jane<\/a>

Jane Dacre, Royal College of Physicians president, with a photograph of pioneering hepatologist Sheila Sherlock.{credit}John Chase (c) Royal College of Physicians{\/credit}<\/p><\/div>\n

Jane Dacre, the current president of the RCP, selected physician Sheila Sherlock<\/a>, who founded hepatology, the study of the liver. According to an online biography<\/a> connected to the exhibition, Sherlock said that she opted to study that organ because \u201cno one else was doing it\u201d.<\/p>\n

All these women racked up notable achievements \u2014 and overcame tremendous obstacles to do so. But too many of the write-ups on the accompanying website read like CVs: it is sometimes difficult to glimpse the person behind the achievements, no doubt due to limited space and historical records. Still, there is plenty to whet the appetite. For example, I\u2019m eager to learn more about the friendship with a dying man that led Cicely Saunders<\/a> to found the modern hospice movement.<\/p>\n

\"Asha<\/a>

Asha Kasliwal, president of the Faculty of Sexual and Reproductive Healthcare, with a photograph of Anandibai Gopal Joshi, one of the first women in India to study Western medicine.{credit}(c) FSRH{\/credit}<\/p><\/div>\n

Happily, the exhibition\u2019s brief biography is enough to reveal why Anandibai Gopal Joshi<\/a> \u2014 among the first Indian women to practice Western medicine \u2014 chose to enter medicine. Married at age 9 and a mother at 14, Joshi\u2019s child died ten days after he was born due to inadequate medical care. \u201cMy soul is moved to help the many who cannot help themselves,\u201d Joshi wrote in her application to the Women\u2019s Medical College of Pennsylvania. (Her photograph is held by Asha Kasliwal,<\/a> who trained in Mumbai and is now president of the Faculty of Sexual and Reproductive Healthcare<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

For perspective, a trip downstairs to the Treasures Room, featuring medical tools from past centuries, is fascinating. Among them is a \u2018modesty doll\u2019<\/a>. In a time when clinicians were all men, women would point to areas on the doll corresponding to the body part in question to describe their symptoms.<\/p>\n

In a nearby display case hangs the ornate formal robe, heavy with real gold thread, of the RCP\u2019s president, next to a photo of Dacre wearing it. The robe cannot be shortened, and positioning it on Dacre\u2019s petite frame took some doing. Yet you\u2019d never know it: it fits her perfectly.<\/p>\n

Heidi Ledford is a reporter for Nature in London. She tweets at @heidiledford.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Women in Medicine<\/em><\/strong><\/a> runs at the Royal College of Physicians until 19 January 2018.<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

For\u00a0Nature<\/em>\u2019s full coverage of science in culture, visit www.nature.com\/news\/booksandarts.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Visitors stepping into the Royal College of Physicians (RCP) in London are normally greeted by the sombre stares of imposing men, in portraits lining the walls. From today, women outshine them, in 26 photographic portraits of modern female clinicians ranged along the central stairwell. Each holds an image of a historical figure who inspired them.  Read more<\/a> Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3353,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[85,25,19,21,545341],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6805","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-history-of-science","category-medical-research","category-medical-science","category-psychology","category-society"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/aviewfromthebridge\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6805","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/aviewfromthebridge\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/aviewfromthebridge\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/aviewfromthebridge\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3353"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/aviewfromthebridge\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6805"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/aviewfromthebridge\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6805\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/aviewfromthebridge\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6805"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/aviewfromthebridge\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6805"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/aviewfromthebridge\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6805"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}