International Women's Day

Shining a Light

As International Women’s Day approaches, today we pay tribute to three of the many women whose accomplishments not only challenged the status quo but made the world a better place for us all. Though their success might have otherwise been hindered by gendered cultural or societal obstacles, fortuantely their talents and insights were fueled by passion and perseverance to bring new ideas to life and break industry norms. To these three women, and other female trailblazers like them, today and always, we honor you.
Dr. Emily Howard Stowe

Dr. Emily Howard Stowe

First woman to establish a medical practice in Canada
(1831-1903)

One of five daughters born to Quaker farmers in Ontario Canada, Dr. Emily Howard Stowe was a crusader for the rights of women and a pioneer for women in medicine. In 1865 Stowe applied to the Toronto School of Medicine but was denied entry – at that time, women were not admitted to medical schools in Canada. Stowe then applied and was accepted to the New York Medical College for Women, where she graduated in 1867. She returned to Canada and became the first woman to open a medical practice, although she was not licensed until 1880. Throughout her life, Dr. Stowe worked tirelessly to ensure women could study at medical schools in Canada, and in 1883, she helped establish the Ontario Medical College for Women. That same year, the Toronto Women’s Literary Club, which Stowe had established in 1876, was renamed the Canadian Women’s Suffrage Association, crediting Dr. Stowe as a founding member of Canada’s suffrage movement. In 2018, Dr. Stowe was inducted into the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame.

My career has been one of much struggle characterized by the usual persecution which attends everyone who pioneers a new movement or steps out of line with established custom.

~ Dr. Emily Howard Stowe

Dr. Emmy Noether

Dr. Emmy Noether

Mathematical genius and originator of Noether’s theorem
(1882-1935)

The daughter of a German math professor, Emmy Noether is one of history’s most influential mathematicians, known best for her creation of Noether’s Theorem, which some say is the backbone of modern physics. In 1907 Emmy Noether was granted a PhD in Germany from the University of Erlangen and was a beloved mentor and teacher of young people while providing pivotal breakthroughs in mathematics and abstract algebra. Because of the discrimination of women at German universities at the time, Dr. Noether spent a decade of her early career teaching under a man’s name and her accomplishments weren’t fully recognized in her own country. In fact, she was not paid for lecturing during her first 14 years of teaching. Soon after the rise of the Nazi regime, she was forced to resign her position at the University of Gottingen and Albert Einstein, together with the Institute of International Education and the Rockefeller Foundation, enabled her to flee Germany for the United States. Upon arrival she found supporters and fellow thinkers at Princeton’s Institute for Advanced Study and in the last two years of her life, finally achieved a paid post as a full faculty member at Bryn Mawr College for women, in Pennsylvania.

Upon her untimely death in 1935 at the age of 53, in a letter to the New York Times, Einstein noted “In the judgement of the most competent living mathmaticians, Fraulein Noether was the most significant creative mathematical genius thus far produced since the higher education of women began.”

My methods are really methods of working and thinking; this is why they have crept in everywhere anonymously.

~ Dr. Emmy Noether

Dr. Priscilla White

Dr. Priscilla White

Pioneer in diabetes and founding member of Joslin Diabetes Center
(1900-1989)

An early pioneer in diabetes, Dr. Priscilla White was a founding member of Boston’s Joslin Diabetes Center1, one of the world’s most renowned institutions for diabetic care. Working together with the legendary Dr. Elliot Joslin, her work initially focused on “juvenile onset” diabetes (later termed T1D) and was quickly regarded as the world’s authority for children, adolescents, and young adults with diabetes. She later became a trailblazer for women with diabetes, including advocacy for women to receive specialized care during pregnancy. Almost singlehandedly, Dr. White fought the prevailing opinion that women with diabetes should avoid pregnancy and developed the White Classification of Diabetic Pregnancies which categorizes patients according to their risk and is still used today. Because of her work over almost 50 years, the fetal success rate of women with diabetes at the Joslin Center rose from 54 percent when Dr. White began working at Joslin, to 97 percent by the time she retired in 1974. During the 5 decades of her career, she managed the deliveries of over 2,200 women with diabetes and the supervision of roughly 10,000 cases of those with Type 1 Diabetes. Outside of Joslin, Dr. White was instrumental in establishing the Clara Barton Camp for Girls with diabetes in 1932, and in 1960, Dr. White became the first woman to receive the prestigious Banting Medal, the highest scientific award of the American Diabetes Association.
There is hardly a subject of more importance in the study of diabetes than its prediction, except its prevention or its cure.
~ Dr. Priscilla White

1. Dunn PM. Dr Priscilla White (1900-1989) of Boston and pregnancy diabetes. Archives of Disease in Childhood. Fetal and Neonatal Edition. 2004;89(3):F276-F278