March is Women’s History Month, when notable women throughout time are honored. It is an excellent time to reflect on how far we have come and what the generations that came before us had to deal with.
Today half of our medical school graduates are women, but in the past women had a very difficult time breaking into the field.
The Healthy Living Staff at the Huffington Post put together a slide show of 50 women who have had, in their opinion, the largest effect in medicine and health.
How many of these great women do you recognize? Click here to view their slideshow.
Marie Curie and Florence Nightingale leaped out at me from studies in school – oh, how I admired those women:
Marie Curie – the first person to ever be given two Nobel Prizes. Born in 1867, her life wasn’t easy in the male-dominated era that she lived in. However, that didn’t stop her. Her husband was also a scientist, but was killed in Paris by a horse-drawn wagon in 1906. She carried on the work alone, becoming the first woman professor at the Sorbonne. She discovered 2 elements – polonium (named after her native Poland) and radium, and she came up with a theory of radioactivity. She actually died of a condition brought about by her exposure to radiation.
Florence Nightingale – the founder of modern nursing. She was from an upper-class family, who frowned on her getting involved in something “beneath her.” They eventually acquiesced and she trained in Germany. She spent time in Turkey with a team of nurses during the Crimean War, improving conditions there greatly, then returned to England where she started her own nurse training school.
And of course there is Jane Fonda…
Seriously?
Well, yes, actually – she had a HUGE impact on health and fitness back in 1982 when she released the first exercise video ever! I know I used it a lot, it was actually quite a good workout. That certainly started a new trend – today there are hundreds and hundreds of titles to choose from.
What other women do you know that have done amazing things?
