Medical Women's Federation

Last updated

Medical Women's Federation
AbbreviationMWF
PredecessorAssociation of Registered Medical Women
Formation1 February 1917;107 years ago (1917-02-01)
Legal statusCharity
Location
Coordinates 51°31′35″N0°07′41″W / 51.526403°N 0.128015°W / 51.526403; -0.128015
Region
United Kingdom
Membership (2008)
1200
Current President
Scarlett McNally
Key people
Previous Presidents of the MWF who have Wikipedia pages are listed here.
Website www.medicalwomensfederation.org.uk

The Medical Women's Federation is the largest UK body of women doctors. The organisation is dedicated to the advancement of the personal and professional development of women in medicine and to improving the health of women and their families in society. It was founded in 1917, and its headquarters are located in Tavistock Square, London.

Contents

Origins

Late 19th century Group photo of the Medical Women's Federation Medical Women's Federation. Wellcome L0030528.jpg
Late 19th century Group photo of the Medical Women's Federation

The Medical Women's Foundation built upon the Association of Registered Medical Women, which had been founded in London in 1879 with the intention that it would 'speak on behalf of all medical women and represent their interests.' [1] Nine members comprised the original association, though other provincial associations and members rapidly followed as more women became qualified in medicine. Representatives of these associations came together in 1916 to discuss the benefits of establishing a Federation. This meeting was in part stimulated by the Government's dismissive attitude towards women doctors who wished to serve in the First World War. [2]

On 1 February 1917, Articles of Association were drawn up and signed, thus creating the Medical Women's Federation. [3] There were 190 members to begin with, including Jane Harriett Walker, Ethel Williams, Catherine Chisholm, Florence Barrett, and Louisa Aldrich-Blake. [2] The offices opened on 13 February. [4] At the outset they considered accepting members living outside the British Isles and reported receiving enquiries from Canada, Tasmania, Australia and India. [5]

The newly formed Federation launched a campaign to promote the role of women in the armed forces, arguing that women medics should be given commissions in order to maintain discipline in military hospitals. [6] Concerns about women included fears about their physical abilities and the absence of suitable accommodation, and especially the attitude that women should not command men and fear that any concession might initiate a movement for officer-status on the behalf of other women serving in branches of the military. [6] The Federation collected testimonies and excellent records, but despite their petitioning and campaigning the War Office remained reluctant to grant women equal status. [6]

Other early focusses included venereal disease, prostitution, and maternity and infant welfare. [2]

Inter-war years

In the 1920s, the Federation was concerned about the number of organisations which restricted access to women, including medical schools, local authorities and other employers. [2] Several medical schools had reverted to refusing women access, and many organisations had marriage bars. An early campaign of the Federation included a 1918 protest against London County Council's decision to return to a pre-war refusal to employ married women. [4] A standing committee on Married Medical Women followed in 1921. By the 1930s, Stepney and the city of York had appointed women Medical Officers of Health. [7]

In addition to their work on the employment of women, the Federation examined varied aspects of women's health during the inter-war years. Issues included venereal disease, [8] nutrition, lunacy law reform, the fitness of women to pilot commercial aeroplanes, the menopause, and guidance on the hygiene of menstruation (a Federation pamphlet on this subject sold 10,000 copies in a single year). [2] In 1921, the Association of Medical Women in India became affiliated to the Federation, and the improvement of women's health in India was a Federation campaign. [2] Another particular focus during this period was sexual health. In 1921, a subcommittee was appointed to discuss birth control, a topic that was much discussed at the time in light of the campaigning of Marie Stopes. [2] In 1930, Dr Margaret Ida Balfour published research into maternity care of mill-workers in Bombay, India. [9] By 1931, a resolution was passed stating that instruction in the provision of birth control should be included in medical schools' gynaecological syllabus. They also argued that the Birth Control Investigation Committee ought to include a woman gynaecologist. [2]

Second World War

Before the outbreak of the Second World War, the Federation and War Office discussed the role that women would play in the conflict. They decided that women were to receive the same rates of pay as their male counterparts, and the same allowances as single men doctors. [7] However, the Federation were unsuccessful in their efforts to obtain the right for women to be commissioned personnel, and women were only granted "relative rank". [7]

The Federation achieved several successes in terms of incorporating their concerns into government policy during the war. Women served on a number of medical boards and panels of consultants, though not on the Ministry of Labour's staff. The federation also lobbied government on issues including equal pay, the birth rate, nursery school provision, and the employment of women in the Diplomatic Services. [7] In 1944, the Goodenough committee strongly advocated changes to medicine including mixed medical schools and called for open competition for all hospital appointments. Its criticism of discrimination against women in hospitals as going against public interest was significant in furthering the aims of the Federation. [7]

Post-war work

From the end of the Second World War, the Federation played an increasingly influential role in British Medicine due to its representation on other medical bodies. In 1946, British Medical Association appointed its first women members, and throughout the 1950s and 60s Federation members worked with the BMA and the General Medical Council as well as other official committees. [2]

The Federation also made connections with other women's organisations such as the Women's Group on Public Welfare. These connections led to work such as the creation of the Women's National Cancer Control Campaign in 1963, studies into ovarian cancer, and campaigning against female genital mutilation. [2]

In addition to long-standing campaigns to address workplace or educational grievances of women medics, campaign issues after the war included: nursery arrangements, [10] care of the child under the NHS, [11] pain in childbirth, the health of schoolgirls, family planning in the National Health Service, abortion, [12] rape and sexual assault, assisted reproduction, and child health. [2]

In 1970, the organisation became eligible for charitable status [2] and was registered on 16 November as the Medical Women's Federation Grant Fund. [13] It is now registered with the Charity commission under its own name. [14]

In 2008 the organisation reported having 1,200 members. [15]

Presidents

1917-1920 Jane Harriett Walker

1920-1922 Mary Sturge
1922-1924 Florence Barrett
1924-1926 Frances Ivens
1926-1928 Christine Murrell
1928-1930 Catherine Chisholm
1930-1932 Louisa Martindale
1932-1934 Mabel L. Ramsay
1934-1936 Ethel Williams
1936 Mona Chalmers Watson
1936-1938 Ellen Orr
1938-1940 Elizabeth Bolton
1940-1942 Janet Aitken
1942-1944 Clara Stewart
1944-1946 Janet Mary Campbell
1946-1948 Mary Lucas Keene
1948-1950 Gertrude Herzfeld
1950-1953 Doris Odlum
1953-1954 Mary Esslemont
1954-1955 Annis Gillie
1955-1956 Mona MacNaughton
1956-1957 Kate Harrower
1957-1958 Jean Mackintosh
1958-1959 Katharine Lloyd-Williams
1959-1960 Georgiana Bonser
1960-1961 Sylvia Guthrie
1961-1962 Joyce Cockram
1962-1963 Patricia Shaw
1963-1964 Dorothy McNair
1964-1965 Mary Crosse
1965-1966 Margaret Methven
1966-1967 Josephine Barnes
1967-1968 Marian Maxwell Reekie
1968-1969 Beryl Corner
1969-1970 Catherine Gray
1970-1971 Agnes Nutt
1971-1972 Albertine Winner
1972-1973 Jean Hallum
1973-1974 Catrin Williams
1974-1975 Josephine Williamson
1975-1976 Joan Sutherland
1976-1977 Jean Lawrie
1977-1978 Mary Jones
1978 Mary Duguid
1979-1980 Romola Dunsmore
1980-1981 Amelia Marrow
1981-1982 Ruth Bowden
1982-1983 Rosemary Rue
1983-1984 Dorothy Ward
1984-1985 Jean Scott
1986-1987 Beulah Bewley
1987-1988 Lotte Newman
1988-1989 Margaret Sprackling
1989-1990 Nuala Sterling
1990-1992 Liz Shore
1992-1993 Wendy Savage
1993-1994 Gillian Markham
1994-1995 Chitra Bharucha
1995-1996 Judith Chapman
1996-1997 Fleur Fisher
1997-1998 Anne Rennie
1998-1999 Joan Trowell
1999-2000 Fiona Subotsky
2000-2001 Kate Ward
2001-2002 Ilora Finlay
2002-2003 Pauline Brimblecombe
2003-2004 Melanie Jones
2004-2005 Selena Gray
2005-2006 Bhupinder Sandhu
2006-2007 Melanie Davies
2007-2008 Sue Ward
2008-2010 Helen Goodyear
2010-2012 Clarissa Fabre
2012-2014 Fiona Cornish
2014-2016 Sally Davies
2016-2018 Parveen Kumar
2018-2020 Henrietta Bowden-Jones
2020– 2021 Neena Modi
2021 - 2023 Chloe Orkin

2023 - present Scarlett McNally

Related Research Articles

Archibald Leman Cochrane was a Scottish physician noted for his book, Effectiveness and Efficiency: Random Reflections on Health Services, which advocated the use of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) to improve clinical trials and medical interventions. His advocacy of RCTs eventually led to the creation of the Cochrane Library database of systematic reviews, the UK Cochrane Centre in Oxford and Cochrane, an international organization of review groups that are based at research institutions worldwide. He is known as one of the fathers of modern clinical epidemiology and is considered to be the originator of the idea of evidence-based medicine. The Archie Cochrane Archive is held at the Archie Cochrane Library at University Hospital Llandough, Penarth.

<i>The BMJ</i> British peer-reviewed medical journal

The BMJ is a weekly peer-reviewed medical journal, published by BMJ Group, which in turn is wholly-owned by the British Medical Association (BMA). The BMJ has editorial freedom from the BMA. It is one of the world's oldest general medical journals. Previously called the British Medical Journal, the title was officially shortened to BMJ in 1988, and then changed to The BMJ in 2014. The journal is published by BMJ Publishing Group Ltd, a subsidiary of the British Medical Association (BMA). The current editor-in-chief of The BMJ is Kamran Abbasi, who was appointed in January 2022.

The British Medical Association (BMA) is a registered trade union for doctors in the United Kingdom. It does not regulate or certify doctors, a responsibility which lies with the General Medical Council. The BMA has a range of representative and scientific committees and is recognised by National Health Service (NHS) employers alongside the Hospital Consultants and Specialists Association as one of two national contract negotiators for doctors.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sports medicine</span> Branch of medicine for sports injuries

Sports medicine is a branch of medicine that deals with physical fitness and the treatment and prevention of injuries related to sports and exercise. Although most sports teams have employed team physicians for many years, it is only since the late 20th century that sports medicine emerged as a distinct field of health care. In some countries, sports medicine is a recognized medical specialty. In the majority of countries where sports medicine is recognized and practiced, it is a physician (non-surgical) specialty, but in some, it can equally be a surgical or non-surgical medical specialty, and also a specialty field within primary care. In other contexts, the field of sports medicine encompasses the scope of both medical specialists as well as allied health practitioners who work in the field of sport, such as physiotherapists, athletic trainers, podiatrists and exercise physiologists.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ben Goldacre</span> British physician, academic and science writer (born 1974)

Ben Michael Goldacre is a British physician, academic and science writer. He is the first Bennett Professor of Evidence-Based Medicine and director of the Bennett Institute for Applied Data Science at the University of Oxford. He is a founder of the AllTrials campaign and OpenTrials, aiming to require open science practices in clinical trials.

Sir James Calvert Spence, & Bar was an English paediatrician who was a pioneer in the field of social paediatrics. He was a founding member of the British Paediatric Association.

The Prince's Foundation for Integrated Health (FIH) was a charity run by King Charles III founded in 1993. The foundation promoted complementary and alternative medicine, preferring to use the term "integrated health", and lobbied for its inclusion in the National Health Service. The charity closed in 2010 after allegations of fraud and money laundering led to the arrest of a former official.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wendy Savage</span> British gynaecologist

Wendy Diane Savage is a British gynaecologist, and advocate and campaigner of women's rights in childbirth and fertility.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Harry Platt</span> English orthopaedic surgeon

Sir Harry Platt, 1st Baronet, FRCS, KStJ was an English orthopaedic surgeon, president of the Royal College of Surgeons of England (1954–1957). He was a founder of the British Orthopaedic Association, of which he became president in 1934–1935.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">AllTrials</span>

AllTrials is a project advocating that clinical research adopt the principles of open research. The project summarizes itself as "All trials registered, all results reported": that is, all clinical trials should be listed in a clinical trials registry, and their results should always be shared as open data.

Margaret Ida Balfour, FRCOG was a Scottish medical doctor and campaigner for women’s medical health issues, who made a significant contribution to the development of medicine in India. Her prolific writing during the early 20th century alerted many to the health needs of women and children in India and Africa and the unhealthy environments in which they lived.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mona Chalmers Watson</span>

Alexandra Mary Chalmers Watson CBE,, known as Mona Chalmers Watson, was a British physician and head of the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps. The first woman to receive an MD from the University of Edinburgh, she helped found the Elsie Inglis Hospital for Women, was the first president of the Edinburgh Women's Citizen Association, a staff physician and later senior physician at the Edinburgh Hospital and Dispensary for Women and Children, and co-edited the Encyclopaedia Medica with her husband, Douglas Chalmers Watson. At the time of her death in 1936, she was president of the Medical Women's Federation, having been elected May 1935.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elston Grey-Turner</span>

Elston Grey-Turner was a British medical doctor who served in World War II and was on the staff of the British Medical Association for many years.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elizabeth Gould Bell</span> One of the first women to qualify as a doctor in Ireland

Elizabeth Gould Bell was the first woman to practice as a qualified medical doctor in the north of Ireland—in Ulster—and was a vocal and militant suffragist. In a protest action by the Women's Social and Political Union, in 1913-14, she engaged in a series of arson attacks directed against the Unionist establishment in Belfast. Amnestied at the outbreak of the First World War, she became one of the first women to work with the Royal Army Medical Corps. In her last years, she continued to campaign for maternity and child welfare services.

Adolescent sexuality has been a topic observed and studied within the United Kingdom throughout the 20th century and in the 21st century. Associated organisations have been established to study and monitor trends and statistics as well as provide support and guidance to adolescents.

Professor Miles Weatherall (1920-2007) was a British pharmacologist.

Joseph Gavin Collier is a British retired clinical pharmacologist and emeritus professor of medicines policy at St George's Hospital and Medical School in London, whose early research included establishing the effect of aspirin on human prostaglandins and looking at the role of nitric oxide and angiotensin converting enzyme in controlling blood vessel tone and blood pressure. Later, in his national policy work, he helped change the way drugs are priced and bought by the NHS, and ensured that members of governmental advisory committees published their conflicts of interest.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Christine Murrell</span> English medical doctor

Christine Mary Murrell was an English medical doctor. In 1924, she became the first woman elected to the British Medical Association's Central Council. However, due to her untimely death, she never took seat leaving the first membership to Hilda Lloyd in 1933.

Alexander Paton was a British gastroenterologist, writer and postgraduate dean for North-West London hospitals, who was a specialist in alcohol misuse.

Nora Wattie MBChB (Aberdeen), DPH (Cambridge) was a pioneer of social medicine, setting up Glasgow’s internationally renowned ante-natal care service.

References

  1. Elsom, Matt (2011). "Breaking the Mould- The Entry of Women into Medicine in the UK". UK. Archived from the original on 2 June 2020. Retrieved 27 June 2016.{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Hall, Lesley A. "Our History". Medical Women's Federation. Archived from the original on 28 December 2017. Retrieved 27 June 2016.
  3. "Catalogue Entry for Memorandum and articles of association and bye-laws of the Medical Women's Federation". Wellcome Library Catalogue. Wellcome Library. Retrieved 27 June 2016.
  4. 1 2 "Catalogue Entry for Medical Women's Foundation". Wellcome Collection. Retrieved 5 October 2021.
  5. Walker, Jane (7 April 1917). "Correspondence". The Common Cause. VIII (417): 6. Retrieved 27 June 2016.
  6. 1 2 3 Hacker, Barton C.; Vining, Margaret (2012). A Companion to Women's Military History. Brill. p. 194. ISBN   978-9004212176.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 Jones, Helen (2014). Women in British Public Life, 1914 – 50: Gender, Power and Social Policy. Routledge. ISBN   978-1317889311.
  8. "The State and venereal disease". British Medical Journal . 1 (3083): 155. 31 January 1920. doi:10.1136/bmj.1.3083.155. PMC   2337134 . PMID   20769779.
  9. Group, British Medical Journal Publishing (15 December 1945). "Obituary". Br Med J. 2 (4432): 866–867. doi:10.1136/bmj.2.4432.866. ISSN   0007-1447. S2CID   220227065.
  10. Day Nurseries Committee of the Medical Women's Federation (17 August 1946). "Health of Children in Wartime Day Nurseries. Day Nurseries Committee of the Medical Women's Federation". British Medical Journal. 2 (4467): 217–21. doi:10.1136/bmj.2.4467.217. PMC   2054176 . PMID   20786861.
  11. "The child under the N.H.S. Discussion by Medical Women's Federation". The Lancet. 260 (6741): 930–931. 8 November 1952. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(52)91294-4.
  12. Bowden, R. E.; Pantin, A. M. (17 December 1966). "Abortion Law Reform. Memorandum prepared by a Subcommittee of the Medical Women's Federation". British Medical Journal. 2 (5528): 1512–1514. doi:10.1136/bmj.2.5528.1512. PMC   1944226 . PMID   5928943.
  13. "Medical Women's Federation Grant Fund". Charity Commission for England and Wales . Retrieved 4 July 2016.
  14. "Medical Women's Federation". Charity Commission for England and Wales. Retrieved 4 July 2016.
  15. De Souza, Beryl; Ramsay, Rosalind (4 March 2008). "Medical Women's Federation celebrates its long history". BMJ Careers. 336 (7643): s90. doi:10.1136/bmj.39495.781563.CE. S2CID   79871484 . Retrieved 10 August 2016.