Mary Putnam Jacoby
Although the field of medicine as a career was inaccessible to many women in the 19th and early 20th centuries, several very gifted and committed women were able to overcome family disapproval, assumed biological limitations, and other societal obstacles to penetrate this elite field traditionally reserved to men. Several were also able to make revolutionary scientific advances that benefited all women and greatly improved their health and well-being. Mary Putnam Jacobi was one such woman.
Like Dr. Helen Octavia Butler whom we celebrated earlier this month, Mary Putnam Jacobi (1842-1906), was determined to become a physician from an early age. The daughter of George Putnam, the prominent New York publisher, Mary always dreamed of studying medicine. In a recent biography of Dr. Jacobi by Lydia Reeder, entitled The Cure for Women: Dr. Mary Putnam Jacobi and the Challenge to Victorian Medicine, we learn that ten-year old Mary wrote, “I would be great…. I would do deeds, so that after I had passed…, I should be spoken of with affection.” While Reeder acknowledges that Jacobi’s greatness is undeniable, she laments that few people today even know the name of this early pioneer in medicine and advocate for women’s rights.
Born in London, England where her father was working at the time, Mary and her family returned to New York in 1848. Mary and her other siblings attended both public and private schools and received private tutoring in Greek, science and medicine. In 1868, Mary persuaded the Sorbonne to admit her to its medical school, becoming its first female student. After successfully completing her studies, she returned to America and became a professor of medicine and practitioner of women’s health care in her own private practice and at the New York Infirmary and its affiliated Women’s Medical College. There she worked with the College’s founders, Elizabeth and Emily Blackwell, both trailblazing physicians, who became her mentors.
In 1873, she married Abraham Jacobi, a renowned physician who is now referred to as the “father of American pediatrics.” In 1876, she was the first woman to win Harvard’s prestigious Boylston Medical Prize for her provocative essay dispelling myths of women’s presumed limitations during menses. This was the first of many similar articles challenging medical orthodoxy on women’s health many of which were based on Jacobi’s original research and innovative data collection. She conducted interviews and physical exams on countless women volunteers and recorded their heart rates, muscle strength, temperatures and personal observations during various times of each month. Her work showed that biology is not an obstacle to achievement and ambition does not cause infertility, another popular myth concerning women’s health and the effects of working outside the home.
Jacobi wrote more than 120 medical articles, essays, and nine books, including some novels. Later in her career, she became involved in the women’s suffrage movement. Her most influential work in this period was Common Sense Applied to Women’s Suffrage, published in 1894 and reprinted in 1915 after her death, to support the final and very successful stages of the suffrage movement.
Nikki Giovanni
Nikki Giovanni was an American poet whose writings range from calls for Black economic power to poems for children. She was a significant member of the Black Arts Movement, a period of artistic and literary development among Black American artists in the 1960’s and early ’70’s. Nicknamed “Nikki” by her older sister, Yolanda Giovanni grew up in Knoxville, Tennessee and Cincinnati, Ohio. In Ohio, both her parents taught grade school. In 1960, Nikki entered Fisk University in Nashville and received a B.A. in History. She was firmly committed to the civil rights movement and the concept of Black power.
In her first three collections of poems, “Black Feeling Talk” (1968), “Black Judgement (1968) and “Re: Creation (1970), her content was revolutionary with a deliberate interpretation of experience through a Black consciousness.
Giovanni had a son, Thomas, in 1969, and intentionally raised him on her own, choosing not to publicly reveal the father’s name. Her experiences as a single mother influenced her poetry. Giovanni was a popular reader of her own poetry, and her performances were issued on several recordings. She was a highly respected speaker, and she taught at various universities including Virginia Tech., which was the site of a mass shooting in 2007. The gunman was a former student of Giovanni’s, and she had earlier alerted school authorities about his troubling behavior. At a memorial service, she gave a powerful reading of a poem she had written following the tragedy. Giovanni died December 9, 2024, at the age of 81. She was residing in Blacksburg, Virginia.
Dr Helen Octavia Butler 1909-2001
“It was what I wanted to do, and I didn’t see why I couldn’t do it. You just had to do what you had to do to get the job done.” These are the words of Dr Helen O Butler, a woman determined to be a doctor during a time when women were rarely admitted to medical school, especially a black woman.
Dr Dickens’ parents, Charles a former slave and Daisy a domestic servant, encouraged education, particularly in desecrated schools. Even though she faced many challenges and controversy, Dr Dickens did just that and received her M.D. from the University of Illinois (1934) and Masters from University of Pennsylvania (1942).
During her residency Dr Dickens developed an interest in obstetrics and gynecology and this field became her life’s work. She moved to Philadelphia, working in the low-income black communities. One of her goals was to education young women, in particular, about women’s health care. She became invested in community groups and in churches, speaking about the importance of pap smears and teen pregnancy as well as well-baby clinics. She partnered with churches and primary care physicians to educate this vulnerable group of women. She founded inner city free clinics for teens, including intensive counseling, group therapy and family planning.
Dr Dickens challenged herself to change medicine. She taught at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine from 1965-1985, advancing from instructor to full professor to professor emeritus. Generations of doctors and scholars have followed because of her legacy.
A Prayer for Women’s History Month. 2025
Dear Lord, we ask your blessings for the beloved women in our lives and in our histories.
Blessed are the generations of brave women who dared to hope,
For it was women who were the last ones at the cross with Jesus, and it was women who first visited the tomb.
Blessed are the generations of faithful women who dared to resist,
For it was in the homes of women that Christianity first spread, back in the days when you still risked your life to follow in the way of Christ.
Blessed are the martyrs, missionaries, and mystics. Blessed are the prophets, poets, and preachers. Blessed are the caregivers and nurturers and protectors.
Blessed are the ancestors who forged a way in the wilderness, so that we wouldn’t have to fight the same battles and clear the same paths they once did. Blessed are the descendants that will come after us, who will carry on the work we have yet to begin. And Blessed are the descendants we may never meet, who will create the worlds we haven’t yet dared to imagine.
Amen.
An adaptation of a prayer by Rev. Victoria Wick, pastor in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and a regular contributor to the Christian Century, an independent religious magazine.