Nowadays, it isn’t uncommon to see female doctors working in hospitals; rather, it would be uncommon to visit the doctor and not see a single female physician. While women have achieved significant progress in balancing out the gender disparity in the medical field, one area is still heavily dominated by men—surgery. Less than a quarter of American surgeons are women with orthopedic and neurosurgery being as low as around 5% female.
It wasn’t until around the mid 1800s that the United States saw their first female surgeon, Mary Edwards Walker. Earning this position was no easy feat, but her encouraging parents surely helped her to get started. The Walker family, composed of two parents, six daughters, and one son, placed a heavy emphasis on education, however considering that the majority of the family was female, traditional education meant only one child (the son) would receive a proper education. Refusing to accept this, the Walker family started a free school, instilling the value that anything is possible into Mary’s head at a young age.
All Mary wanted was to be a doctor, but before she could attend medical school, she knew she had to find a way to make enough money to afford tuition. She worked hard as a teacher before eventually entering the Syracuse Medical College, where she was the second woman to ever graduate, after Elizabeth Blackwell, the first female American doctor.
As a doctor, Walker tried to set up a practice with her husband but had to soon close due to patients refusing to be seen by a woman. A few years after closing her practice, the Civil War started, which launched Mary back into her medical career. With a strong opposition to slavery, Mary wanted to help contribute to the abolitionist movement and went to Washington DC to lend her medical expertise. Once again, nobody wanted to see a female physician, but that didn’t stop Mary from volunteering as a nurse. Two years after helping wounded soldiers, Mary finally was accepted to become a surgeon.
Mary truly had a passion for helping anyone and everyone, displaying a true sense of selflessness. She would be on the frontlines and even help soldiers from the other side if they were severely injured. This caused the Confederates wrongfully to take her as prisoner for four months, but upon her release, she won the Presidential Medal of Honor. Some may say that she is the only woman to have received this award, but others will disagree. After publicly supporting women’s rights and trying to register to vote and run for Congress, the honor was temporarily rescinded. It took until Jimmy Carter’s presidency sixty years later for Mary to officially receive the award again, recognizing her support in feminist and abolitionist causes.
Mary made it her mission to not only help patients by being a doctor, but women across America by advocating for herself and them, calling herself “the original new woman.” For a long time, she wore bloomers, or a combination of a dress and trousers. Women who wore bloomers were heavily criticized, but Mary continued to wear them until she started wearing men’s clothes for the purpose of comfort, regardless of what others said. This got her in trouble with the law many times as officials thought that she was pretending to be a man, but Mary always found a way out. Men gave her trouble all her life and constantly judged her for her actions, but she died an accomplished woman, being an example for women to follow for generations after.
By: Bao Han Ngo
Comments