Marine biologist Pat Ralph specialised in marine hydroids, which before she began publishing were little studied in New Zealand; she published five seminal papers on the thecate hydroids of New Zealand between 1957 and 1961. Her pioneering work won worldwide recognition and in 1962 she received the rarely given DSc; she was the first woman on the staff of Victoria University College to receive the degree.
The letters she received over 40 years are an invaluable historical record of hepaticology during that time. Working from home at her ‘moss bench’, her microscope in the light of a window and her typewriter on the dining-room table, Amy Hodgson published more than 30 papers between 1930 and 1972. She described two new families of liverworts and nine new genera; most have stood the test of time.
She is credited with modernising the Auckland YWCA, so that it was fully part of the secular world while retaining its Christian roots.
American physician Mary Putnam Jacobi was the first woman to graduate from the New York College of Pharmacy, and the first woman to study medicine at the University of Paris.
American geologist, Bascom was the second woman to earn Ph.D in geology in the United States, in 1893. She became the first woman to work for the United States Geological Survey in 1896.
Italian physician and educator, founder of the Montessori System of teaching children
English physician and pioneer of women’s rights.
June Opie was a polio survivor, clinical psychologist, writer and broadcaster who overcame discrimination against the disabled to achieve professional and personal success. Her memoir, Over my dead body (1957), was an international best-seller and brought her widespread fame.
French midwife who invented the pelvimeter and vaginal speculum, which are used to dilate the vagina and examine the cervix. She discovered causes of miscarriages and was the first to use a stethoscope to listen to the fetal heartbeat. Her books Mémorial de l’art des accouchements (The Art of Obstretrics, 1812) and Traité pratique des maladies de l’utérus et de ses annexes (1833, on diseases of the uterus) were important texts for medical students and midwives.
Greek historian and scholar