Dame Josephine Barnes: Distinguished Gynaecologist and First Woman President of the British Medical Association

Abstract

In previous articles in this series, we have written about the great women pioneers who broke down the barriers which prohibited or limited their entry into the various branches of the healthcare professions and who then proved that they could compete, on equal terms, with their male counterparts. Included in the first among these, of course, was Florence Nightingale, who, in the Crimean war (1854–6) and afterwards introduced the ‘modern’ era of nursing training and put an end to the dirty, ignorant and often drunk women who had been delegated to look after the sick and injured in the hospital wards before her time.