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Women In Health History - In Public Service

© Gretchen Malik

In our final submission, we salute some of the women who have contributed to the history of medicine through the world of public service.

Sara Josephine Baker, unsuccessful as a physician, found her niche when she became a New York City medical inspector. Her first assignment was "Hell's Kitchen," where she was sent to track down people with contagious diseases. Through this position, she is best-know for finding "Typhoid Mary," the cook who spread typoid fever to the households in which she worked. Baker is also known for her educational programs relating to hygiene, nutrition and infant care which are used throughout the world. Baker was the first to license midwives, create a make-at-home baby formuly, develop a program for children who took care of younger siblings and design safer infant clothing. By the time she left her job as medical inspector, New York had the lowest infant mortality rate in the United States and Europe.

The first woman and the first Hispanic to be appointed surgeon general of the United States was Antonia Novello. Born in Puerto Rico, Novello decided to pursue a career in medicine after many years of suffering as a child from a painful chronic condition of the colon. In addition to her training in pediatrics, Novello earned a masters' degree in public health from Johns Hopkins University and embarked on a career in public health. Her work as a medical advisor to lawmakers attracted the attention of President George Bush, who nominated her as surgeon general. During her time as Surgeon General, she worked to call the nation's attention to children with AIDS and to promote the dangers of smoking and teenage drinking.

From surgeon general to writer, Mother Alphonsa Lathrop, began her life as Rose Hawthorne. She followed her father's footsteps, Nathanial Hawthorne, before changing her career. In 1896, along with her husband, George Parsons Lathrop, founded the first home for victims of incurable cancer. After her husband's death, Rose became a num of the dominican order devoting her life to the welfare of the terminally ill. With four other nuns, she founded a small cancer hospice in lower Manhattan. Upon her death, her obituary in the New York World read, "Her guests, poor and helpless though they were, were still her guests and treated as such...such a person understands that man does not live by bread alone, that he is cared with an imagination which sets him reaching for things a little above the necessities of life.