Sarah Dougherty was typical of many women of her time. That this small, auburn-haired woman had great physical and mental strength is borne out by her survival to a great age. Self-taught, a ‘well-informed woman,’ extraordinarily independent, she endured hardship, risk and isolation.
Temperance worker, nurse, community leader, writer
Throughout her career Doris Gordon had the welfare of mothers and children at heart. She believed her male colleagues in the Health Department did not know what they were talking about when they promoted natural childbirth and claimed that even stitches after a birth ‘do not hurt much’. She wanted the same facilities available for all women, and was convinced that the best services were doctor-controlled.
Constance Helen Frost remained on the staff at Auckland Hospital for nearly 17 years and until 1913 she was the only woman doctor.
Agnes Macready should be regarded as the first Australian woman war correspondent, although there was no official system at this time for accreditation.
German abbess and mystic who organized a school of nurses for service in the hospitals; noted composer whose works are still performed today, as well as a brewer and herbalist who described using hops in beer.
Emily Siedeberg was a woman of strength and determination, who rarely gave up once she had set her mind on something. Courageous and dignified, she proved herself a model woman doctor for the period by using her professional skills in the traditional female sphere of community service.
Florence Dissent was an Anglo-Indian medical practitioner in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century.
After taking her MD in Brussels in 1894, she worked as Assistant Medical Officer at the Edinburgh Hospital and Dispensary for Women and Children, and also penned further novels and short stories. She has also gained recognition among the scientific community for having proposed the word ‘isotope’.
Physician and zoologist Claire Weekes was the first woman to earn a doctorate of science at the University of Sydney, and a long-time advocate for women’s rights.