Women's History In Medicine, A New Book 'Lady Doctors' Shares Ground Breaking Stories

Author Kavitha Rao's book Lady Doctors talks about 6 of India's early doctors ranging from about the 1860s to the 1930s. It covers their journey to get where they are. These are untold stories of Indian women in medicine starting from Dr. Anandibai Joshi to Dr. Mary Poonen Lukose.

The author's inspiration to write the book was Dr. Rukhmabai Raut, an interest female doctor from India's history. Slowly, she realised that there were many other Indian doctors who didn't receive their due. So she decided to write about them.

At the launch of the book at SheThePeople's Women Writers Fest, Rao was in conversation with journalist Nisha Susan.

Prominent women doctors of History

The conversation with Rao started with a picture from the graduation ceremony of three female doctors. These were Anandibai Joshi, the first Indian woman doctor; Keiko Okami, the first woman doctor in Japan and Sabat Islambouli, the first woman doctor from Syria.

The graduation ceremony of the three doctors took place at Women's College of Pennsylvania, now known as Drexel University of Medicine in Philadelphia. The college was very forward thinking and had women doctors from all over the world. Anandibai Joshi sailed there in the 1880s to become India's first woman doctor. But on returning to India, she died very early of Tuberculosis before she could even practice. Rao further talked about the other two women doctors and their achievements.

Significance of the phrase 'lady doctors'

The author does not use the phrase as a "coy title". This is what female doctors were called earlier. When women started entering medical college in the UK and the US, they were called 'lady doctors' so that they could be distinguished from men in a pejorative way. The phrase was probably first used in the British medical journal and said that the lady doctors are unfeminine and do things which women should not. Back in the time, it was considered that women are only fit for nursing, not medicine.

Significance of Anandibai's life

Anandibai had considerable privilege to go abroad for her studies because she was a Brahmin woman. But at that time, it was a big thing for women to even leave their house. Hindu women were married off in their childhood. The fact that she got an education was considered radical. She however had the support of her husband, Gopal Rao Joshi who was just as much complicated as her. He would assault her physically for spending time on cooking instead of studying. Despite facing difficulties, she emerged as successful, which was something extremely challenging for women back then.

Kavitha Rao talks about Haimabati Sen

Haimavati Sen was a physician who wrote the memoir Because I am a Woman, which was buried in a trunk as her relatives didn't think it was important. The book, originally written in Bangla was dug out in 2011 and translated into English. She got married as a child to a man who was 45-years-old. Within a year, she became a widow. Sen's relatives took away all her money and left her as a poor child widow in West Bengal. So she became a doctor not because of a lofty aim but just to support herself.

Challenges Rao faced while writing

Most of the women the author mentioned in her book did not write letters or memoirs. History is mostly written by men about men. So very little was written about these women. "Secondly, the memoirs were written in Marathi or Bangla, languages that I do not read. So I had to get some things translated. The third thing is that the pandemic hit halfway through the research of this book and all libraries were closed. People were not willing to talk to me or give me information because everyone was too busy trying to keep themselves healthy," said Rao. She had to use international contacts to collect data for her work.

Rao wanted the book to be readable and fun

Kavitha Rao said that the most important thing for her was that she wanted the book to be readable and fun. Though it sounds incongruous that a historic book on lady doctors should be fun but she tried her best to make it so. "There are a lot fun anecdotes about these women. Rukhmabai actually couldn't get any patients so she brought a pregnant sheep into her hospital and delivered the lamb because she wanted to prove to people that she could deliver babies. I tried to make each woman stand out as her character and make it very simple and easy to read," said Rao.

Story of Dr. Mary Poonen Lukose

Dr. Mary Poonen Lukose was India's (or possibly the world's) first surgeon general. She was the doctor for Sethu Lakshmi Bayi (The Travancore Rani) who was a very progressive woman. Kerala being a matrilineal society, women began to come forward. An interesting fact about Dr. Lukose was that even more than a century ago, she was in favour of modern medicine. At that time, there was a small pox epidemic going on and a certain group of people who wanted to make the small pox vaccine optional. But the doctor bravely stood up in favour of vaccination in the legislative assembly and said that everyone needed to bear some amount of risk to protect others in the society. This was years before it was accepted as a "social good" in the rest of India. So she was a pioneer in that regard.

Muthulakshmi Reddy's contribution

Muthulakshmi Reddy built the Adyar Cancer Institute in Chennai, a significant institute in cancer care. It was a pioneer in the field of cancer care back in the time. She was also one of the first Indian women in public life. Reddy's mother was a devdasi, so she knew the horror of the system. Therefore she had the system abolished and also started a refuge for the children of devdasis. It later became a refuge for other  women. In one of her memoirs, she advises women not to get married because its too much work juggling family and profession. One can devote oneself to profession by remaining unmarried.

Lady Doctors, a book for everyone

The author shared that many a times, men tend to underestimate women saying that they are "caring" different from men in nature. They also wrongly believe that women have not made so many contributions as them. But the book proves that women were just as clever and capable. It is just that they were systematically kept out of the profession.