Dr Olga Stastny, Her Service to Nebraska and the World
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Nebraska History posts materials online for your personal use. Please remember that the contents of Nebraska History are copyrighted by the Nebraska State Historical Society (except for materials credited to other institutions). The NSHS retains its copyrights even to materials it posts on the web. For permission to re-use materials or for photo ordering information, please see: http://www.nebraskahistory.org/magazine/permission.htm Nebraska State Historical Society members receive four issues of Nebraska History and four issues of Nebraska History News annually. For membership information, see: http://nebraskahistory.org/admin/members/index.htm Article Title: Dr Olga Stastny, Her Service to Nebraska and the World Full Citation: Stepanka Andrews-Koryta, "Dr Olga Stastny, Her Service to Nebraska and the World," Nebraska History 68 (1987): 20-27. URL of article: http://www.nebraskahistory.org/publish/publicat/history/full-text/NH1987OlgaStastny.pdf Date: 4/11/2012 Article Summary: Dr. Olga Stastny, who was graduated from the University of Nebraska Medical School in 1913, struggled against great odds to secure professional training and to practice her skills. Despite her Czech immigrant background and the few women doctors of the time, she made great strides both in the United States and abroad as a physician and was a significant force in eliminating discrimination against female physicians. Cataloging Information: Names: Teresa Sadilek, Francis Sadilek, Charles S Stastny, Robert Stastny, Olga Sadilek, Esther Pohl Lovejoy, Franklin Martin, Rosalie Slaughter Morton, Alice Masarykova, Mustafa Kemal, William Gorgas, Kyra Klinderma, Gladys Forilsham, Dr Smoloff Place Names: Wilber, Nebraska; Saline County, Nebraska; Boston, Massachusetts; Chicago, Illinois; Seine-et- marne, France; Paris, France; Prague, Czechoslovakia; Pardubice, Bohemia; Loutraki, Greece; Macronissi Island, Greece; New York, New York; Serbia; Luzancy, France; Trencin, Czechoslovakia Keywords: University of Nebraska Medical School; New England Hospital for Women and Children [Boston]; American Medical Association; Chicago Women's Club; Mary Thompson Hospital [Chicago]; YWCA; Medical Women's National Association; American Medical Women's Association (AMWA); War Service Committees; American Women's Hospitals (AWH); Medical Board of the Council of National Defense; Red Cross; Americanization Department of the Nebraska Council of Defense; Medical Reserve Corps; Medaille de Reconnaissance; Department of Hygiene and Social Service in the Social Service Training School of Prague; Rockefeller Foundation; YMCA; Slovak Ministry of Education; Cross of St George [Greece]; Noguehi Gold Medal; Doane College at Crete; University of Nebraska Foundation; Women's Army Auxiliary Corps (WAACS); Sparkman-Johnson bill Photographs / Images: Dr Olga Stastny treating Kyra Klinderma at a Czech and German YWCA Social Service School in Prague, 1919; Family portrait of Olga Stastny with husband Charles and their two children in 1905; Olga Sadilek at the age of twelve, 1890 in Wilber; Dr Stastny working at her desk, 1919; Dr Stastny at a YWCA sponsored clinic for young mothers in Prague, 1919; YMCA library for Czech soldiers at Trencin which included Dr Stastny's booklet on sexual hygiene; Dr Stastny in YMCA uniform, 1920; Dr Stastny with Austrian children from Vienna being taken by the American Relief Association to Switzerland, 1919; Macronissi Island with hospital tents; Dr Smoloff treating patients in children's ward of hospital on Macronissi; Chief dietician Gladys Forilsham and helper John; publicity photo of Dr Stastny during her speaking tour in 1923-1924 Dr. Olga Stastny (right) treating Kyra Klinderma at a Czech and German YWCA Social Service School in Prague, 1919. DR. OLGA STASTNY, Her Service to Nebraska and the World By Stepanka Andrews-Koryta There were few women in the medi which further isolated her from fellow Stastny remembered herself as some cal profession during the early twen medical students and other physi thing of a tomboy - a naughty girl who tieth century. Male doctors and society cians. was not fond of playing with dolls. The in general believed women to be Olga Stastny was born September period between her childhood years physically and intellectually incapable 13 , 1878, the second of eight children, and her entrance into medical school of working as physicians. Family and to Teresa and Francis Sadilek of seems to have been free from con church matters were thought to be the Wilber. Both her parents were natives siderations of a professional career. proper centers of female concern. Such of Bohemia, now part of Czechoslo However, she was intrigued by the work women as Dr. Olga Stastny, who was vakia. Olga's father was not content to of the local midwife, who according to graduated from the University of Ne follow his early vocation as a saddler Olga, must have been very skillful since braska Medical School in 1913, and describes in his memoirs, written the population of Wilber was constant struggled against great odds to secure in 1914, his desire for public office.l ly growing. professional training and to practice Having served as a justice of the peace In 1895 at the age of seventeen Olga their skills. Dr. Stastny suffered the in Wilber, he was elected to the state Sadilek married Charles S. Stastny, a additional disadvantage of a Czecho legislature in 1882. Sadilek then served first generation Czech immigrant, who slovakian immigrant background, as deputy treasurer for four years and became a dentist. Stastny, an in 1897 was elected register of deeds ambitious man, also wanted to secure for Saline County, a position he held for medical training. He and Olga dreamed Stepanka Andrews-Koryta is now complet ing for the University of Nebraska-Lincoln twenty-two consecutive years.2 of going to medical school, perhaps her Ph. D. dissertation on Czech immigration In her autobiographical sketch writ together. In the meantime two children to America in the late nineteenth century. ten for a medical journal in 1935,3 Dr. were born to the Stastnys, a girl and a 20 Olga Stastny boy. In 1907 at the age of twenty-eight, Charles died in Wilber after a gall blad der operation.4 The tragedy of her husband's prema ture death and the responsibility of supporting her family altered Olga's life. Previous plans to further her education, as well as her ambitious father's influence, prompted her to enroll at the University of Nebraska College of Medicine. Later in life Dr. Stastny recalled her registration in 1908:5 Less than a year after my husband's death, I found myself registering at the University of N e braska, a country widow, in black and white gingham, over-serious perhaps, in my time of sorrow, feeling myself almost a misfit when all round the registry desk fluttered gay young girls being rushed by the sororities and going into school happily and light-heartedly. The life insurance money left by Olga's husband and income from a weekend job with a Czech-language newspaper in Wilber were sufficient to cover Olga Stastny with husband Charles and their two children, 1905. The son, Robert, died in a expenses. Family members assisted 1921 airplane crash in Czechoslovakia. her in meeting the demands of her strenuous schedule. A sister com muted each weekend from Wilber to Lincoln to care for Olga's children while Olga worked in Wilber on her officially accepted female students, Dr. the mainstream of male-dominated newspaper job.6 Stastny was the only woman in her medical education and practice and Although the medical school class, and her male classmates resent were only grudgingly accepted as mem ed her presence, feeling that women bers of the American Medical Associa lacked the capacity to learn and prac tion. Thus a small group of women Olga Sadilek at the age of twelve, 1890, tice medicine. Gradually, however, doctors began to work toward organiz in Wilber. Olga began to be accepted by her fellow ing their own medical society.s This students and to adjust to her new goal was realized in November 1915 at environment. She was graduated in the Chicago Women's Club, where a 1913 at the age of t hirty-five - not relatively radical group of female doc unusual since many medical women in tors, including Dr. Stastny, met to com Nebraska had embarked on their memorate the fiftieth anniversary of careers after marriage and the birth of the opening of the Mary Thompson their children. Dr. Stastny served her Hospital in Chicago. The Medical internship at the New England Hospi Women's National Association, later tal for Women and Children in Boston, renamed the American Medical where she practiced mainly obstetrics Women's Association (AMWA), was in the maternity ward. Her children organized to protect and unite women meanwhile attended boarding school in doctors and to work toward equality of Boston. After completing her intern opportunity for female physicians.9 ship, Dr. Stastny returned to Nebraska However, the new group did not gain and opened a private practice on July 1, the allegiance of all medical women, 1914, in Omaha.i some of whom preferred to work The few women who became quietly within the status quo to physicians in the early 1900s, such as improve relations with the men's seg Dr. Stastny, found themselves outside ment of the profession. These more 21 Nebraska History conservative women doctors preferred tantly. The Red Cross did not oppose to remain unaffiliated if not admitted to women physicians but did discourage existing professional societies. 10 independent medical units abroad as a The AMW A held a progressive threat to its control over relief work. stance on most medical and social However, France and Serbia had issues. They were interested in secur requested immediate help and since ing places for more women in health the AWH volunteer unit was at hand, fields and in improving conditions for, women were sent.17 and the image of, women in medicine.