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Women doctors are the focus of a new traveling exhibition opening March 7, 2008 at the Jackson Medical Mall and continuing through April 8th. “Changing the Face of Medicine: Celebrating America’s Women Physicians” tells the extraordinary story of how American women who wanted to practice medicine have struggled over the past two centuries to gain access to medical education and to work in the medical specialty they chose. The public is invited the view the exhibits Monday - Friday from 9:00 am - 4:30 pm at the Jackson Medical Mall; and to attend the various free programs that teach, report, and honor the success and accomplishments of the women health professionals in the state. A hand made queen-size quilt pictured at the left has also been designed and sewn especially to commemorate the exhibit and will be raffled off. 

Two interactive kiosks traveling with the exhibition offer access to the NLM’s “Local Legends” web site, which features outstanding women physicians from every state, and to a web site created for the larger exhibition at the NLM. The exhibition web site offers access to educational and professional resources for people considering medicine as a career, as well as lesson plans for classroom activities. A section of the web site called “Share Your Story,” allows the public to add the names and biographies of women physicians they know.

Since the mid-1800s, when Elizabeth Blackwell became the first woman in America to earn an M.D. degree, women have made enormous strides in every area of medicine and have achieved success in work once considered “unsuitable” for women. Women physicians are now found in every branch of medicine. They are researchers on the cutting edge of new medical discoveries, educators, surgeons, family practitioners, specialists, and government officials. “Changing the Face of Medicine” features the life stories of a rich diversity of women physicians from around the nation and highlights the broad range of medical specialties women are involved in today.

The National Library of Medicine (NLM), Bethesda, Md., and the American Library Association, Chicago, Ill., organized the exhibition with support from the National Library of Medicine, the National Institutes of Health Office of Research on Women’s Health, and the American Medical Women’s Association. The traveling exhibition is based on a larger exhibition that was displayed at the NLM from 2003–2005.

“Women have brought fresh perspectives to the medical profession,” said Donald A.B. Lindberg, M.D., director of the National Library of Medicine. “They have turned the spotlight on issues that had previously received little attention, such as the social and economic costs of illnesses and the low numbers of women and minorities entering medical school and practice.”

Women physicians in the 21st century are benefiting from the career paths carved out since the mid-19th century by a long line of American women. Some early physicians featured in the exhibition are Matilda Evans, the first African American physician to be licensed in South Carolina, and Florence Sabin, one of the earliest woman physicians to work as a research scientist. Among the many other doctors whose stories appear in the exhibition are Antonia Novello, the first woman Surgeon General of the United States, and Catherine DeAngelis, the first woman to be appointed editor of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Overview of Exhibition Themes

The exhibition begins by addressing the struggle women waged in America beginning in the mid 19th century to gain access to medical education after being shut out when medicine became established as a formal profession. Among the first generation to challenge assumptions about women’s intellectual abilities and traditional responsibilities were Elizabeth Blackwell, the first woman to earn an M.D. degree in America, and Mary Putnam Jacobi, a medical scientist trained in Paris who was the first woman elected to the New York Academy of Medicine.

Women of color also faced financial hardship and racism when building their careers. Among women who went on to make remarkable contributions despite these obstacles is Matilda Evans, the first African American woman to be licensed as a physician in the state of South Carolina. In 1901, she established Columbia, South Carolina’s first black hospital, and her survey of the health of black school children became the basis for a permanent medical examination program in South Carolina public schools.

By the early 20th century, women had made impressive inroads into the medical profession, but they were still discouraged from working in certain specialties and from pursuing scientific research. Women physicians created their own opportunities by founding new specialties and focusing on issues that in the past had received little attention. Alice Hamilton studied the effects of industrial metals and chemicals on the body and advocated for public health protection for workers. Virginia Apgar developed the first standardized way to evaluate a newborn’s condition through ranking five vital signs, and Helen Taussig helped develop an operation to compensate for heart defects in newborns, paving the way for the development of adult open heart surgery.

Women physicians have made breakthrough discoveries that benefit everyone. They have brought new perspectives that are reshaping patient care, medical education, and public health policies. Barbara Barlow worked to make playgrounds in Harlem safe for children. Lori Arviso Alvord, the first Navajo woman to become a board certified surgeon, combines conventional Western medicine with traditional healing practices, and Katherine Flores works to increase the number of Latina women in the profession. Susan Briggs has devoted her career to medical emergencies in the U.S. and abroad, including the response to the September 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center in New York.

What about the physicians of the future? This exhibition offers role models such as Antonia Novello, the first woman and first Hispanic Surgeon General of the United States, Catherine DeAngelis, the first woman editor of the Journal of the American Medical Association, and many more remarkable women physicians, whose lives and achievements may inspire people who view this exhibition to follow in their footsteps through a career in medicine, or to nurture their special talents and contribute to the world in other ways.