What began as a day of recognition by the American Socialist Party for the female garment workers of New York City in 1908 has since become under the guidance of the UN an internationally recognised day of celebration of Women on the 8th of March.

To celebrate this day, Karista wanted to acknowledge Australian women who have made healthcare and medicine what it is today.

Emma Constance Stone

Constance Stone as she was also known, was Australia’s first practicing female physician. Born in 1856, Stone grew up in Melbourne and was educated by her mother, a former governess. After developing an early interest in anatomy, Constance left Australia to be trained in medicine in Canada and the United States. Her home university, The University of Melbourne would not admit women into medicine. Constance returned to Melbourne in 1890 where she became the first woman to register with the Medical Board of Victoria. Later, in 1895 the Victorian Medical Women’s Society was formed in Constance’s home with the object being ‘effecting a closer relationship between medical women graduates and undergraduates and to advance the knowledge to further their interests generally’. By 1896, eleven female doctors decided to set up a hospital of their own, using their own vision and under the leadership of Constance. This hospital went on to become The Queen Victoria Hospital which was a first of its time. Constance Stone died in 1902 from tuberculosis.

Elizabeth Kenny

Elizabeth Kenny began her career in medicine as a nurse during WW1, treating the soldiers who survived the battlefields of France. By 1932, she had returned home to Townsville and set up her own backyard clinic treating long term polio patients and those living with cerebral palsy. At the time the standard treatment involved restricted movement, braces and calipers and often total immobilisation. Kenny rejected all of that and instead developed a program using hot baths, passive and active movements and massage. Many of her contemporaries laughed at her but she was not to be deterred. In 1937 the Queensland Government created clinics in Brisbane and Townsville for long term polio sufferers using Kenny’s methods; patients came from interstate and overseas to participate in her program. In 1937, her passage was paid by parents to England where she set up a ward at the Queen Mary’s Hospital in Surrey. Again, she was confronted by doctors who tried to discredit her motives. In 1940 she was invited to the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota where unsurprisingly was was confronted by more doctors who tried to discredit her. However, by 1942 her methods had begun to be accepted and the Kenny Institute was built in Minneapolis with other clinics following. Elizabeth Kenny died at home in Toowoomba in 1952.

Elizabeth Blackburn

Elizabeth Blackburn is the first Australian woman to win a Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine. Awarded in 2009 she shared her prize with co-researchers Carol Greider and Jack Szostak for their co-research and discovery of the genetics of DNA and their links to cancer and other illnesses.

Rhonda Galbally and Helena Sykes

It was through Rhonda Galbally and Helena Sykes’s with Bruce Bonyhady activism and submissions to parliament that the Rudd/Gillard Government was able to create and eventually enshrine in law the NDIS. In a submission to the Rudd Labor Government’s Australia 2020 Summit they stated the creation of the NDIS would:

"First, with an insurance model the families of people with disabilities can have confidence that the needs of their family member will be met, reducing the stress and risks of family breakdown. Second, a life-time approach to care ensures that early intervention and equipment is available immediately following diagnosis or injury, leading to better and lower cost long-term outcomes. Third, active case management facilitates as normal a life as possible and minimises the risks of over-dependence on publicly funded support. Fourth, a NDIS would provided funding for research, development of best practice models and public education to reduce the incidence of risky behaviours leading to disability”.

Julia Gillard

On the 29th of November 2012, Julia Gillard introduced the National Disability Insurance Scheme Bill (NDIS Bill) into Parliament. Not only was Julia Gillard Australia’s first Prime Minister, she was also instrumental in ensuring that the NDIS Bill passed parliament and that the States worked cooperatively and allowed the trials and eventual implementation to begin. Julia Gillard, is now the first female chair of Beyond Blue an Australia’s first independent and non- for-profit organisation focused on depression and anxiety.

Sources: Australian Dictionary of Biography, United Nations, Nobel Prize, NDIS, Culture Trip