American Women Physicians and the First World War

n COMMENTARY They Were There: American Women Physicians and the First World War Mollie C Marr, BFA1; Iris Dupanovic, MS2; Victoria Z Sefcsik, MS3; Nitisha Mehta4; Eliza Lo Chin, MD, MPH5 Perm J 2020;24:20.032 E-pub: 09/08/2020 https://doi.org/10.7812/TPP/20.032 INTRODUCTION Women’s Oversea Hospitals, and the American Fund for is past decade marked the centenary of World War I French Wounded. In fact, registrations conducted by the (WWI). For the first time in American history, women AWH showed that “almost one-third … of the medical women participated on a large scale in war efforts through the in the country…, active and retired, signified their willingness to military and other government agencies. Although much is provide medical service as part of the war effort … and compared known about the importance of medicine during WWI, favorably to the service rates of male colleagues.”4 most of the focus has been on male physicians who served In this article, we shed light on the underrecognized abroad. Tens of thousands of women went abroad as nurses, women leaders of WWI. rough their stories, we explore ambulance drivers, and relief workers, but the contributions the barriers they faced and the opportunities they created. of women physicians in the war are less well known. When the US entered the First World War in 1917, WOMEN PHYSICIANS’ CONTRIBUTIONS DURING THE WAR women physicians represented less than 5% of the physician President Woodrow Wilson appointed Dr Anna Howard workforce.1 Anticipating a surge in the demand for medi- Shaw, physician and former president of the National cal services, the Army Surgeon General sent Army Medical American Woman Suffrage Association, to chair the Reserve Corps registration forms to all physicians. ese Woman’s Committee of the Council of National Defense.9 forms did not request physician sex because the respon- In June 1917, this committee convened the leaders of 50 dents were assumed to be male.2 Many women physicians various national women’s organizations—including social, completed the forms, volunteering to serve in the Army community, religious, and professional groups—to contrib- Medical Reserve Corps. eir applications, however, were ute to the war effort.10 As an immigrant from East England, rejected on the belief that women could not handle the Dr Shaw felt that it was important for women of all demands of the battlefield and were not qualified to com- backgrounds to have a part in the war, stating, “[N]ow that mand men.3,4 Women physicians were also told they could war has come I shall … begin at once to organize the women not serve because “it hadn’t been done” before, despite of the country for war service.… [I]t is time for us … to act women serving in military nursing corps since 1901.5 Finally, definitely.”10 Another accomplished physician, Dr Rosalie they were told that because they could not vote, the use Slaughter Morton, was appointed to represent the nation’s of the word “citizen” in the legislation that expanded the women physicians on the Council of National Defense.11 Army Medical Reserve Corps did not apply to them.6 In During the war, she was also appointed Special Commis- 1917, the Medical Women’s National Association (later sioner by the Red Cross, a role through which she helped renamed the American Medical Women’s Association) transport supplies from Paris to the war front.12 lobbied the US government to include women in the Army In 1917, the Medical Women’s National Association Medical Reserve Corps, asking that “opportunities for med- founded the American Women’s Hospitals (AMH). Led ical service be given to medical women equal to the opportuni- by Dr Morton and later Dr Lovejoy, AWH was the largest ties given to medical men … and that the women so serving all-women’s medical group and would eventually become a be given the same rank, title and pay given to men holding clearinghouse for registering women interested in overseas equivalent positions.”7 Ultimately, all petitions and appeals war work.13 During its first year, the AWH registered more for inclusion in the Army Medical Reserve Corps were denied.3,4 Author Affiliations Exclusion from the Army Medical Reserve Corps did not 1 ff Department of Behavioral Neuroscience, Oregon Health & Science University, Portland, OR stop women physicians from contributing to the war e ort. 2 Biomedical Sciences Department, Tufts University, Boston, MA Dr Esther Pohl Lovejoy8 wrote, “e women of the medical 3 Pacific Northwest University of Health Sciences, College of Osteopathic Medicine, Yakima, WA profession were not called to the colors, but they decided to go 4 Morsani College of Medicine at the University of South Florida, Tampa, FL ” 5 American Medical Women’s Association, Schaumburg, IL, and University of California, San Francisco, San anyway. Women physicians held government and civilian Francisco, CA leadership roles, created and ran their own hospital units, served in the US and French army as civil contract sur- Corresponding Author geons and volunteered in various organizations such as the Mollie C Marr ([email protected]) ’ American Red Cross, American Women s Hospitals (AWH), Keywords: activism, American Medical Women’s Association, American Women’s Hospitals, Medical Women’s National Association, women physicians, Women’s Oversea Hospitals, World War I The Permanente Journal·https://doi.org/10.7812/TPP/20.032 The Permanente Journal·For personal use only. No other uses without permission. Copyright © 2020 The Permanente Press. All rights reserved. 1 COMMENTARY They Were There: American Women Physicians and the First World War than 1000 women physicians.14 Dr Barbara Hunt oversaw as a contract surgeon in the US Army so that she could the opening of their first hospital, AWH No. 1, in France in remain with the unit.14 1918. Located in the war zone, the hospital was mandated Dr Elizabeth Hocker also served as a contract surgeon to treat both civilian and military cases.14 Physicians treated during WWI. Like Dr Tjomsland, she served as an anes- bullet and shrapnel wounds, infections, and broken bones thetist and was assigned to base hospitals stationed overseas. from the conflict and struggled to manage epidemics affect- Dr Hocker’s impact extended beyond the immediate care of ing both military and civilian populations such as dysentery, the soldiers she treated. She often sent a sprig of flowers typhoid, and influenza. As the battlefields shifted, teams of from the grave of those killed with a letter to each of the nurses and physicians from the hospital were sent to areas of families.17 Drs Tjomsland and Hocker were 2 of only 11 greater conflict to treat wounded French soldiers closer to women contract surgeons to be deployed overseas. Most the front line. AWH No. 1 moved locations during the war women contract surgeons served on the home front.3 to meet the medical needs of the district. As one of only a Dr Dolores Pinero was the first Puerto Rican woman to few places to receive medical care in the area, its ambulances serve as an Army contract physician. Like many other were frequently stopped by officials from other districts women physicians, Dr Pinero’s application to the US Army seeking help.13 was denied. However, after appealing to the US Surgeon Another all-women’s group to go abroad was the Women’s General and highlighting her expertise in anesthesia, Oversea Hospitals Unit. Supported by the National Amer- Dr Pinero was accepted as an Army contract surgeon in ican Woman Suffrage Association, this unit provided aid to October 1918.3 She was assigned to the San Juan, Puerto multiple hospital units in France. Dr Anna Von Sholly Rico, base hospital where she served as an anesthesiologist, wrote about her experience as a suffragist in France, pro- laboratory physician, and nursing director.3 A few weeks viding medical assistance to their military units, as part of after beginning her assignment, Dr Pinero and 4 male the Women’s Oversea Hospitals Unit. She was among physicians were ordered to establish a 400-bed hospital to those women physicians who served with the French Army treat influenza patients.3 Once the influenza epidemic sub- in the Chateau Ognon at Senlis near Paris, where the sided, Dr Pinero completed her service at San Juan base hospital was under fire every night. She wrote, “Some of the hospital and received an honorable discharge in 1919.3 sights are pitiful beyond words.… [Mangled men] have waited Other women physicians, such as Dr Caroline Purnell, days with no attention.”15 In 1918, Dr Von Sholly received turned down an offer to become a contract surgeon. Dr the Croix de Guerre award by the French government for her Caroline Purnell stated that it “would mean our ability to commitment to the war effort.15 Dr Mabel Seagrave also be under the cook, the head nurse, or others, and be ordered served as a volunteer in the Women’s Oversea Hospitals, around.”4 Instead, the prominent Philadelphia surgeon leaving her practice in Seattle to treat battle wounds in served as Special Commissioner of the American Women’s France. She stated that “[war surgery] will give the surgeon a Hospitals in France, helping to secure medical supplies, chance to demonstrate things which have heretofore been more or food and clothing, and established a network of locations less experimental.… Military surgery in France today is … an for soldiers and civilians to gain access to needed supplies. opportunity all surgeons must covet.”1 Dr Purnell stated, “[W]e started out about nine o’clock to make e desperate need for anesthetists led the Army to the dispensary rounds with the doctors.… We visited three dis- allow women to enlist as contract surgeons beginning in pensaries… covering over fifty miles and seeing about fifty-four March 1918.6 Contract surgeons were considered civil- people.”18 rough her role with the American Women’s ians and were denied military commissions, benefits, and Hospitals, she became a powerful liaison with the Red command authority.6 ey had no official rank, were Cross, the American Committee for Devastated France, paid a salary equivalent to a first lieutenant, and did not and the Serbian Legation in Paris.

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