October is Women’s History Month in Canada! Beginning in 1992, the Government of Canada established Women’s History Month to coincide with Persons Day on October 18. On this day in 1929, the Persons Case brought about by the Famous Five resulted in some women being legally recognized as persons under the British North America Act. While it was a landmark case in the advancement of gender equality in Canada, the decision did not apply to all women, such as Indigenous women or women of Asian descent.
Today, many women in Canada still fight for equal wages, representation, and protection from gender-based violence. In 2019, the final report from the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls found that “persistent and deliberate human and Indigenous rights violations and abuses are the root cause behind Canada’s staggering rates of violence against Indigenous women, girls and 2SLGBTQQIA people.” While this month is a celebration of the achievements of women and girls who have helped shape Canada, more work is needed to ensure equal protections for everyone.
For ways to take action to advance gender equality in your community, visit Canada’s Women’s History Month page and the Women of Impact in Canada Learning Toolkit. For more information and resources regarding MMIWG, visit Xwi7xwa Library’s Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, & Two-Spirit (MMIWG2S) LibGuide. To learn more about women’s achievements in STEM, you can find podcasts and articles highlighting specific stories through Scientific American’s The Lost Women of Science Initiative.
Listed below are selected books from UBC Library collections that were written by notable women in medicine, botany, and more as well as books celebrating the often under-recognized women in science and medicine throughout history.
Black Women in White: Racial Conflict and Cooperation in the Nursing Profession by Darlene Clark Hine
This path-breaking study analyzes the impact of racism on the development of the nursing profession, particularly on Black women in the profession, during the first half of the 20th century. Hine uncovers shameful episodes in nursing history and probes the nature and extent of racial conflict and cooperation in the profession.
The Mercury 13: The Untold Story of Thirteen American Women and the Dream of Space Flight by Martha Ackmann
Martha Ackmann tells the story of the dramatic events surrounding these thirteen remarkable women, all crackerjack pilots and patriots who sometimes sacrificed jobs and marriages for a chance to participate in America’s space race against the Soviet Union. In addition to talking extensively to these women, Ackmann interviewed Chuck Yeager, John Glenn, Scott Carpenter, and others at NASA and in the White House with firsthand knowledge of the program, and includes here never-before-seen photographs of the Mercury 13 passing their Lovelace tests.
Gender, Medicine, and Society in Colonial India: Women’s Health Care in Nineteenth- and Early Twentieth-Century Bengal by Sujata Mukherjee
Mukherjee analyses the interface between medicine and colonial society through the lens of gender. The work traces the growth of hospital medicine in nineteenth century Bengal and shows how it created a space-albeit small-for providing western health care to female patients. It observes that, unlike in the colonial setup, before the advent of hospital medicine women were treated mostly by female practitioners of indigenous therapies who had commendable skill as practitioners. The book also explores the linkages of growth of medical education for women and the role of the Brahmo Samaj in this process. The manuscript tackles several crucial questions including those of racial discrimination, reproductive health practices, sexual health, famines and mortality, and the role of women’s agencies and other organizations in popularizing western medicine and healthcare.
Women Scientists in America: Struggles and Strategies to 1940 by Margaret W. Rossiter
In volume one of this landmark study, focusing on developments up to 1940, Margaret Rossiter describes the activities and personalities of the numerous women scientists—astronomers, chemists, biologists, and psychologists—who overcame extraordinary obstacles to contribute to the growth of American science. This remarkable history recounts women’s efforts to establish themselves as members of the scientific community and examines the forces that inhibited their active and visible participation in the sciences.
Changing the Culture of Academic Medicine: Perspectives of Women Faculty by Linda H. Pololi
Over the past twenty-five years, steadily increasing numbers of women have graduated as physicians, yet women rarely hold decision-making positions, and female department chairs or deans continue to be exceedingly rare. Pololi’s study, based on extensive interviews, illuminates medical school culture and shows a sharp disconnect between the values of individual faculty members and the values of academic institutions of medicine. She argues that placing more women and people of color in leadership positions would provide transformative and more effective leadership to improve health care and would help address current inequities in the health care provided to different racial and cultural groups.
Women and the Practice of Medical Care in Early Modern Europe, 1400-1800 by Leigh Whaley
Women have engaged in healing from the beginning of history, often within the context of the home. This book studies the role, contributions and challenges faced by women healers in France, Spain, Italy and England, including medical practice among women in the Jewish and Muslim communities, from the later Middle Ages to approximately 1800.
Women As Healers: A History of Women and Medicine by Hilary Bourdillon & Scott L. Waugh
Women as Healers looks at the important and varied role women have played in medicine – as healers, midwives, doctors, nurses and campaigners – from ancient times to the present day. The author also discusses women’s struggle to become accepted on the same terms as men in the medical profession. Through a remarkable range of source material, some previously unpublished, the author unearths this hidden and neglected history.
Rare Books and Special Collections
Marie-Anne Victoire Gillain Boivin
Marie Boivin was a French midwife, inventor, and writer who was highly influential in the field of obstetrics and gynaecology. She invented the speculum and intropelvimeter as well as published 8 medical textbooks. Mémorial de l’art des accouchements and Traite pratique des maladies de l’uterus et de ses annexes etc., can be found in the Gerald W. Korn Obstetrics & Gynaecology Collection.
Vera Ibbett
Vera Ibbett, artist and calligrapher, compiled, designed, wrote, and illustrated Flowers in Heraldry, which depicts 24 pages of botanical paintings. First exhibited in at the Scriveners’ 6600 Exhibition in London in 1974, the detailed art showing various plant species featured on coat of arms has been described as both decorative and informative. Flowers in Heraldry can be found in the William C. Gibson History of Medicine and Science Collection at Rare Books and Special Collections.
Kate Marsden
Kate Marsden was a British nurse who devoted her life to studying leprosy. Her most notable work, On Sledge and Horseback to Outcast Siberian Lepers, describes her journey to Siberia in order to find an herb that she thought may be the cure for leprosy. While there, she helped establish a hospital for lepers and is still known as vocal advocate in the area. While she did not find a cure, this work led her to be nominated as the first female member of the Royal Geographical Society. On Sledge and Horseback to Outcast Siberian Lepers can be found online in the William C. Gibson History of Medicine and Science Collection.