Every year on February 3, starting in 2016, a number of countries celebrate Women's Doctor Day – in honor of representatives of the fair half of humanity working in the medical field.
It is no secret that the profession of a doctor – itself is one of the oldest and most respected on the planet. Both at the dawn of humanity itself and today it is in demand literally everywhere. Each of us has turned to the doctor for help and treatment at least once in our lives. At the same time, few people in the modern world think about – who is more numerous in medical practice – men or women. By the way, these figures differ in different countries. However, women « were officially admitted to medical practice relatively recently.
Back in the mid-19th century, women did not have the right to vote in elections, could not study in higher educational institutions and receive professional education, including in the field of medicine. Elizabeth Blackwell (1821-1910) changed the situation. English by birth, she lived in New York, where she and her sisters organized a boarding school for girls, but dreamed of becoming a doctor. She studied medicine privately for a long time, because not a single American university accepted girls at that time. The only exception was the Geneva Medical College, whose administration invited students to vote whether to accept a girl for training or not. The students, deciding that this was a prank, voted «z». Elizabeth was the best in her course, graduated with honors from the educational institution and, despite all the obstacles, received a diploma, a master's degree and began to practice. She even managed to organize a hospital for women in New York, and later medical courses with her, and then – and the London Medical School, also for women.
Therefore, Elizabeth Blackwell is considered the first female physician in history and the founder of the movement for women's right to work in the medical field. And her birthday – February 3, 1821 – became the reason for the establishment of today's holiday.
In Russia, the first female doctor is considered to be Nadezhda Prokofievna Suslova, who also defended the right to receive a doctor's diploma during a period when the doors of universities were closed to women. In 1862, professors of the St. Petersburg Medical-Surgical Academy, primarily I.M. Sechenov and S.P. Botkin, three women, including Suslova, were allowed to attend their lectures as volunteer listeners. But soon (after the tsarist government banned all women from attending any lectures), Nadezhda left for Switzerland and entered the University of Zurich, from which she graduated in 1867 and began working as a doctor. This success inspired many Russian women. By 1913, the number of Russian female doctors exceeded two thousand people.
In world history, many more female names can be named who made an invaluable contribution to the development of medicine. These are Marie Curie, whose work on radiation led to the development of methods for treating cancer; and Florence Nightingale, who during the Crimean War (1853-1856) organized the world's first service of sisters of mercy; and Rosalind Franklin –, an English biophysicist who did many things to explain the structure of DNA; and Virginia Apgar –, an American anesthesiologist in obstetrics, creator of the Apgar scale, which evaluates the health of a newborn child; and Magdalina Pokrovskaya – is a Soviet bacteriologist, the creator of the world's first effective anti-plague vaccine; and... This list can be continued for a long time.
And although historically men dominated medicine, and women had to « conquer the heights of » on the way to the coveted doctor's degree, now such a phenomenon as a female doctor is considered the norm and no one has any doubts or questions. Everyone is guided by the professionalism and experience of the doctor. Thus, according to a study by scientists from the University of Montreal, the quality of medical care provided by female doctors is higher than that of their male colleagues. And in Russia, for example, there are twice as many women practicing medicine as men.
After all, most female doctors not only have high professionalism in the medical field, but they are also more responsive and open to communicating with patients. The work of doctors is generally invaluable, especially in recent years due to serious illnesses and epidemics, and even more so when it lies on fragile female shoulders.
Therefore, today – is another reason to congratulate all representatives of the fair sex working in medicine on their professional holiday, albeit not official.