The Kiwi women who fought to become doctors

This year Otago Medical School turns 150 and half of the graduates will be women, but it was not always the case

Against the Odds: New Zealand's First Women Doctors details the struggle of women to become part of New Zealand's medical fraternity.

The book covers a 70-year period from the 1890s to 1967 - the year before a medical school would open in Auckland, with biographies of 150 of the 400 female Otago graduates over that time.

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Cynthia Farquhar and Michaela Selway co-authored the book.

Farquhar, the daughter of two doctors, is keenly aware of the different trajectories of her parent’s careers, she says.

“After my father's funeral I was asked to write an obituary for the New Zealand Medical Journal, 300 words, which I did, and it was published.

“And three years later, when my mother died, there was no request from the New Zealand Medical Journal for an obituary. So, I wrote it anyway, and it was published.”

Those 300 words didn't explain the battle that her mother had establish herself in clinical practice, Farquhar says.

From there came the idea for the book, she told RNZ’s Nine to Noon.

“So that's where it began from, and it certainly I have reflected on the differences between now and then, but this book is about the then.”

In 2016 the pair started tracing these pioneering women, Selway says, very much a “word-of-mouth” endeavour.

“We've been trying to locate these women as much as possible, because we really do want to write them into history, because they've been ignored for such a long time.”

So, who are some of these groundbreaking medicos? One is Alice Horsley, says Farquar.

“She came from Auckland. Her parents were teachers, and I don't think they had a lot of resources, but somehow she managed to make that two-day journey down to Dunedin and become a student, and graduated in 1899 and was the first woman doctor employed by Auckland hospital as a junior doctor in 1900.

“She went on to have a family of four children and to be a very successful doctor over five decades in the Auckland area.”

Dr Joan Chapple was the second woman medical graduate to become a surgeon and became a fellow in plastic surgery in the 1960s, Farquar says.

“Quite remarkable, to be the second woman fellow in surgery for when I was training, people assumed that I wouldn't go into surgery. The surgical specialties were in some way for men.

“And so, the fact that Joan did that training and also got a full time hospital appointment at Middlemore Hospital, I think was an achievement in itself.”

Despite her accomplishments, when Chapple fell pregnant, she applied for maternity leave and was instead dismissed, Farquar says.

“Her position was terminated, which was quite, quite a blow to her, obviously, but also quite talked about in the Auckland medical world at that time.

“Subsequently, she came to Auckland Hospital and worked in the A&E department, she was particularly skilled surgeon with interest in hand surgery.”

One of the themes which emerged from the research is how the achievements of these women echoes through the ages, Selway says.

“We met some of the descendants of Alice Horsley…and talking with them and seeing how many of them have continued on to be doctors, because they feel so proud of this history.”

Against the Odds: New Zealand's First Women Doctors is published by Massey University Press and is on sale from Thursday June 5.