Historical Perspectives

Abstract

This first article in a series that tells of the difficult integration of women in neonatology over almost a century (1870 to 1945) will be followed by two other articles to cover the more recent period of exponential progress. At the end of the nineteenth century, many professions were closed to women, including medicine. The very few women who trickled through the doors of medical schools were relegated to the care of women and children. These pioneers, such as Mary Putnam Jacobi, Elizabeth Garrett, and Madeleine Brès, inspired other young women. Major societal changes for women, including the right to vote in a few countries, opened more doors to universities. Following World War I, the medical horizon widened for creative women physicians such as Ethel Collins Dunham, Virginia Apgar, Martha Eliot, and Mary Crosse, who participated in the creation of modern neonatal-perinatal medicine.