Dr. Betty Clements: Breaking Gender Barriers in the Air Force and Neurology

Abstract

Women currently make up 45.9% of neurology residents and fellows1 although little is known about the individual women who broke gender barriers to train as neurologists. Grace Elizabeth “Betty” Clements (1918-1965) was the first woman trainee at the Mayo Clinic to practice neurology and later became a founder of the Barrow Neurological Institute. Prior to paving the way for future women trainees in neurology, she served as a Women Airforce Service Pilot (WASP) including flying atomic bomb planning missions during World War II. Following the war, her path to medicine included volunteering in the American Red Cross in the Philippines where she treated patients with Hansen’s disease (leprosy). Clements returned to her home state to complete medical school at the University of Nebraska before seeking neurologic training at the Mayo Clinic in 1954. Following additional training at Queen Square, she became a founder of the Barrow Neurological Institute in Phoenix, Arizona. Many early women in neurology have remarkable backgrounds that have equipped them for their career in medicine which Clements exemplifies.