March 12, 1999

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ruth Sleeper, RN

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Frances Bonner, MD

 

Since the first patients were cared for at the MGH in 1821, women – including nurses, social workers, therapists, volunteers and eventually physicians and researchers – have played an important role at the hospital.

Because of the male-dominated culture of the 1800s and early 1900s, however, women have faced many challenges in rising through the ranks of their fields to hold significant leadership positions. At the MGH, some have met those challenges and have become pioneers in the fields of nursing and social work. In 1932, when the hospital accepted its first woman resident, women at the MGH also began setting milestones in the field of medicine.

In recognition of Women's History Month this March, some of the accomplished women at the MGH are highlighted below for their significant contributions in the areas of nursing, social work and medicine.

Highlights of the history of women at the MGH
For years, the field of nursing was one of the few vocations that a woman could enter. Several women rose to the top of the nursing field at the MGH, such as Annabella McCrae, RN, (1864-1948) who taught at the MGH School of Nursing for 33 years. She wrote Procedures in Nursing, a two-volume book, which has been used by countless nursing schools for the practical instruction of nurses. The book ran to seven printings and has been translated into Chinese and Turkish.

Another pioneer in nursing was Ruth Sleeper, RN, (1900-1993) who came to the MGH in 1946 and helped lead the way in transforming nursing education by expanding classroom instruction. She developed a curriculum that combined nine months of practical training in the hospital with 28 months of academic classes. Now considered standard nurses training, this combination was revolutionary when first introduced.

The field of hospital social work also has long been an important venue for women at the MGH. With the mentorship of Richard Cabot, MD, who proposed the inclusion of social services at the MGH in 1905, Ida Cannon (1877-1960) was hired in 1906 and developed the MGH Social Service Department, the first of its kind in any hospital. She was the first to demonstrate that the diagnostic and treatment skills of social casework were integral to the comprehensive and compassionate care of patients and their families. Her knowledge of social agencies in the community led to the first hospital-community linkages. It was this understanding that influenced the development of the department, which became a model of medical social work in the United States and abroad.

With Ida Cannon as inspiration, Eleanor Clark (1924-1984) became the director of the MGH Social Services Department in 1964. She created the MGH Continuing Care Planning Unit, the first of its kind in the nation, in which elderly patients who could not return home were transitioned into community facilities and home care programs approved by the hospital and followed by MGH staff in their care. She also established the Adult Foster Care Program, the first in a general hospital, and was the first woman to be promoted to associate general director at the MGH.

Ida Cannon                                                                     Marian Ropes, MD

It only has been in the last 60 years that women at the MGH have distinguished themselves in what has been a traditionally male-dominated physician arena. In 1932, Marian Ropes, MD, (1903-1994) became the first woman appointed as a resident in Medicine at the MGH. She was recognized for her contributions to the field of rheumatology and was the first woman to be elected president of the American Rheumatism Association, now the American College of Rheumatology.

Harriet L. Hardy, MD, (1905-1993) was the first female physician to become a full professor at Harvard Medical School. In a landmark study in the mid-1940s, she identified beryllium as the cause of chronic respiratory disease in factory workers who made fluorescent lights. She established the National Beryllium Registry, an MGH unit that became a model for tracking occupational hazards and establishing guidelines for their control.

Thought to be the first African-American woman physician at the MGH, Frances Bonner, MD, made hospital history when she started her psychiatric residency in 1947. She began her research career at the MGH with a two-year fellowship studying hysteria. Along with several colleagues, Bonner began the Boston Psychoanalytic Institute of New England in 1975, an offshoot of the Boston Psychoanalytic Society and Institute.

Even though progress has been made in empowering women to the highest levels of their fields, women today continue to overcome obstacles to their career paths as they strive to establish themselves in various leadership roles.

In acknowledgement of the barriers that women still face, the MGH established the Office for Women's Careers in 1997 to help facilitate career advancement and enhance job satisfaction for women at the hospital.

Today, women at the MGH have risen to leadership positions, such as chiefs and division chiefs of medical services, clinical and senior vice presidents and administrative department heads.