Этот кошмар я настрочила под влиянием одной из моих лекций. Нет, всё-таки политики, даже от медицины - это что-то особенное. Кошмар отправился в нашу газету - может кто и примет к сведению, хотя ой вряд ли... А вот 60 минут подряд нести про "место женщин под солнцем", не усматривая в своей речи никакого сарказма несмотря на то, что история взаимоотношений "прекрасного пола" с медициной началась, оказывается, в 1849ом году... это мы можем.
Кошмар написан по-английски, переводить лень. Так что,
contradictio in adjecto и
Angela_Borgia - это вам домашнее задание
Если есть время и желание - должна же от этих дневников быть какая-нибудь польза!
читать дальшеWomen in medicine: a very long story
Dr.Antonia Novello, a Current NYS Health Commissioner and 14th Surgeon General, had recently given a lecture in AMC. The lecture’s title was "Women in Medicine: Past Achievements, Future Challenges". It was an interesting talk but it had left me wondering: why all such lectures the history of women in medicine begins with Elizabeth Blackwell?
Dr.Blackwell, the first American female to earn the title of M.D., was a bright, dedicated and unquestionably determined professional, but she is not by any means the first woman to ever practice medicine, or even the first woman to ever practice medicine in the United States. So why is she constantly referred to as “the first woman doctor”?
This assumption lies in the root of human history-making: if something was not appreciated then it must have been unimportant. Our textbooks are filled with deeds of Napoleon and Washington while the works of Newton take hardly half a page. The principal achievement of Giordano Bruno seems to be his execution. Generations of midwives, herbalists, nurses, nuns and healers had never made it into official history at all – no one cared in Antiquity, Middle and Victorian ages. It is permissible for them not to care: they have not heard of equal rights and feminism, but what excuse have we? Why do we stubbornly keep honoring Dr.Blackwell as our first woman doctor when she was only the first woman doctor officially accepted by American paternalistic society of 19th century? She was not, even, if you can believe that, the first woman doctor accepted by paternalistic society – there had been other before her.
To illustrate my point, let us look at some of Dr.Blackwell’s contemporaries and predecessors. Ms.Margaret Cannon Osborne is known to have practiced medicine in the United States in mid-1800s without ever attending medical school. Since many doctors of that time learned their trade by apprenticeship, she had probably received a perfectly comparable education. Mrs.Martha Ballard, a midwife in Maine who had died nine years before Dr.Blackwell was born, left us diaries that are a delight to read. She had been an equivalent of an OB/GYN specialist of her community. On what counts can we deny those two women the title of doctor? Florence Nightingale (we all know her) and Clara Barton, the founder of Red Cross after whom AMC Family Practice clinic is named. They had revolutionized modern medicine; do they sound a bit like medical administrators to you? This same job for which one now needs an M.D. degree? Ms.Dorothea Dix, the one who had changed our concept of mental health care and founded over a dozen of mental health hospitals all over the world had never earned her M.D. Should we call her a psychiatrist? Or should we continue parroting the 19th century authorities in insisting that she was “just a woman” and thus could not have been one?
It is funny, really. No one names the first black M.D. graduate “the first black doctor”. And rightly so, because it would be an insult to the many African, Arabic and American healers who could not contrive to obtain a signed and sealed sheet of paper. James Still, “The Black Doctor of the Pines”, for instance, is still named Dr.Still in our history, even though he had never been near a medical college. I also cannot fathom of how else than “doctor” one could describe the medieval physician and scholar Constantine The African, whose nickname announces his color. So why do we deny this honor to our great-great-grandmothers?
To be fair, I have to mention that the rest of women professionals in our history are in the same disregarded state. For instance, all of us, even those who want nothing to do with sea, had heard of Black Beard. But who has heard of Grace O'Malley, who was, in areas of strategy, tactics and diplomacy, a much more successful pirate? Another example is literature. Many people have heard of Francois Rablais and his Giant stories, but who remembers Margueritte de Navarre, a brilliant writer, poet and songwriter, the author of Heptameron? The list is endless and by not remembering those women we rob ourselves of half our heritage.
Modern society, in its’ struggle to equalize all citizens, seems to be missing one important point: one can give official acknowledgement but one cannot give talent, or courage, or achievement. Those things come from within. Women did not burst into medicine with a bang in 1949 with Elizabeth Blackwell’s brilliant success – we have always been there. It has taken time to get our presence recognized, that is all.
Finally, allow me to introduce the extremely truncated list of women who were famous, great or simply successful medics of their times – long before Dr.Blackwell’s grandparents were born.
· Agnodice of Athens lived during the third century B.C. We do not know much about her and she had long been assumed to be a mythical personage. Well, so was Troy assumed to be a mythical city until Heinrich Schliemann had his crazy idea and found it. Agnodice is said to have practiced OB/GYN until her disguise was lifted.
· Trotula di Ruggerio, a physician of School of Salerno. A brilliant surgeon, midwife, author and teacher. By the way, she had a number of female colleagues... Ah yes, she had lived in 11th century in Italy.
· Alessandra Giliani was a physician assistant of Mondino de Luzzi, “the father of anatomy”. She is known for her work in tracing blood vessel. The time is 14th century, the country, yet again, is Italy.
· And finally, to spice up the dry introduction, the real mystery – James Barry. A graduate of University of Edinburgh in 1813, an army surgeon, he had practiced successfully until 1865 and was noted for “considerable skill in his profession, especially for firmness, decision and rapidity in difficult operations”. After his death, to the great dismay of colleagues and various officials, he was discovered to be a she. As no one ever figured out where exactly she came from, her real name remains unknown.
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10.05.2006 в 21:45-
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10.05.2006 в 21:52Я покопалась в интернете ради такого случая, а то навскидку тоже бы всех не вспомнила. Клару Бартон - точно нет; я мимо госпиталя ее имени каждый день хожу - замылилось. А Алессандру Гилиани я вообще забыла как звали - пришлось искать через де Люцци. А вообще в сети мало что есть - тут нужна хорошая историческая библиотека, да где ж мне ее взять?
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11.05.2006 в 13:37На самом деле, инет, как выяснилось, все-таки, позволяет найти иные прекрасные в информационном плане вещи(увы, поисковики, не всегда их выдают), правда чаще просто через предоставление возможности общаться с людьми, которые могут в этом помочь.
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11.05.2006 в 21:28Ни библиотеки, ни времени. Город маленький. Я, конечно, могу заказать из Библиотеки Конгресса или получить доступ в местные университетские, но это ж надо знать заранее когда и что понадобится, а не как у меня обычно за три часа до сдачи.
На специальную медицинскую литературу/интернетные источники я записана, а вот если что-то "не оттуда", то достать сложнее. И уж точно не из-за статьи в студенческую газету с этим заморачиваться.
Интернет дает шикарные возможности, кто спорит. Просто в каких-то областях он их больше дает. Но я не то чтобы жалуюсь...
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11.05.2006 в 23:49