Why Did We Have To Burn Our Bra's?

Odd title I know but I've been doing some reading lately and what I tend to focus on is medical-related non-fiction. I picked up a book from the library that was both fascinating and frustrating. "American Women of Medicine" by Russell Roberts is an amazing (and short) compilation of biographies. These women were the pioneers in the medical field when so many women were not only expected to not work at all but certainly not in the male dominated medical field. For example...

Dorthea Lynde Dix(1802-1887) Passionate about the living conditions for and the treatment of the mentally ill Dix wrote a Memorial to the Legislature of Massachusetts in 1843. The memorial was so powerful the legislature passed a bill ordering the state hospital to provide better accomodations. In New Jersey her efforts brought about an entire state hospital devoted to the care of the mentally ill. Ultimately she was responsible for founding institutions or improving conditions in 20 states as well as Canada.

Elizabeth Blackwell(1821-1910) Blackwell became the first modern woman doctor. She applied to every medical school in NY and Philadelphia only to be turned down by every single one. In October 1897, after applying to and being denied acceptance into 29 schools she was accepted into Geneva College in upstate NY. In 1857 she founded the NY Infirmary for Indigent Women & Children and became the first woman listed in the British Medical Registry.

Clara Barton(1821-1912) Barton started possibly the first free public school in Bordentown, NJ and after just one year had 600 students. After the Civil War errupted 1861 she learned of the soliders lack of provisions she set out to provide them necessities. Barton volunteered as a nurse and stepped out onto the battlefield to tend to the wounded. The directors of the International Red Cross were eager to estabilish a branch in the US and Barton was the perfect candidate for the job. The first branch of the American Red Cross was founded in NY in 1881.

Mary Edwards Walker(1832-1919) Walker graduated from nursing school in 1855 as the only woman in her class. Denied an appointment as a surgeon in the Union army she worked as a volunteer physician and surgeon from 1862 into 1863 plunging into the battlefield. While she never won her appointment in the Union army, President Johnson signed a bill in Nov 1865 that awarded Walker the Congressional Medal of Honor. She was the first woman to receive this prestigious award.

Susie King Taylor(1848-1912) Taylor began her career as a Civil War nurse, at less than 15 years of age, by looking after several men who contracted a form of smallpox. One day she met Clara Barton and was taken along whenever Barton visited local hospitals. Taylor was one of the first African-American nurses in US history. She went on to organize Corps 67, the Women's Relief Auxiliary, to help Union army veterans and their families.

Clara Maass(1876-1901) At just 16 she enrolled in a nursing program. For the next two years she worked tirelessly and by 1898 became the head nurse at a hospital. When scientists identified the mosquito responsible for carrying malaria they sought to find if it carried yellow-fever as well. Maass volunteered when the city of Havana was in the grip of another yellow fever epidemic. It was there she learend about the research and in 1901 signed up for the experiment. Unfortunately it resulted in a severe case and ultimately her death. Because of this experiment scientists determined the carrier of yellow-fever and conquered the disease. In 1952 the former Newark German Hospital was renamed Clara Maass Hospital in her honor.

Gerty Radnitz Cori(1896-1957) Cori enrolled in college in 1914 at age 18 and graduated in 1920. After a two-year stint in Europe she returned to the US to focus on medical research. She focused her reserach on the chemical process of carbohydrate metabolism, ultimately determining the results of sugar and insulin in the blood stream. She went on to study enzymes and in 1939 discovered the enzyme responsible for converting glycogen to glucose. In 1947 Cori became the first woman to earn a Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine.

Antonia Coello Novello(1944- ) Novello earned a full scholarship to college where she studied biology. She graduated in 1965 and that same year went on to medical school. During her internship she was named Intern of the Year, the first time a woman had ever received the award from the pediatric department. She went on to get her masters in 1982 and became the director of the National Institute of Child Health & Human Development. In 1990 she was sworn in as the US surgeon general as the first Hispanic and first female to hold that high office. After serving her term she was then appointed to serve as NY State Health Commissioner in 1999 where she is still in charge today.

I know this was a long post and if you read it all I am both surprised and thankful. I am not a feminist by any means and I have always known women are both capable of great things and have accomplished great things. What I didn't know before was how many women in the 1800's and early 1900's did so much and yet women were still fighting for equality and, burning bras, in the 50's, 60's, 70's... And some even still today fight for equality. I don't understand what it is about the gender gap. Do some truly believe we are still the 'weaker' sex? If so how can that be after everything women have accomplished?

It is inspiring to look so far back and see what these women achieved in the face of extreme opposition. It does make me wonder why we now seem to give up so easily when faced with a hurdle. If our ancestors gave up as easily what would we, as a collective nation, missed out on? If we persevere as they did, what achievements might we pass on to the next generation?