Oregon Women Physicians: Changing the Face of Medicine

On May 6 students, faculty and invited guests attended a reception for Oregon Women Physicians: Changing the Face of Medicine an exhibit at the Hamersly Library, Western Oregon University installed through June 15, 2009. Pictured are Kimberly Jensen, student Caitlin Summers, and physicians Nancy Boutin, Marge Thompson, and Beverly Olsen.

In spring term 2008 WOU students interviewed local women physicians as part of their coursework for History 465: Health, Medicine, and Gender in Historical Perspective with Professor Kimberly Jensen. Materials from these interviews were part of the Portland, Oregon installation of the National Library of Medicine’s traveling exhibit “Changing the Face of Medicine: Celebrating America’s Women Physicians” last summer at the Multnomah Public Library in association with the Oregon Health & Science University and the Multnomah County Public Library. The online portion of the exhibit may be found at: www.nlm.nih.gov/changingthefaceofmedicine/

For context and perspective students read Regina Morantz-Sanchez’s study Sympathy and Science: Women Physicians in American Medicine (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2000). They established a set of common questions for the interviews, including information about educational experiences, mentors, challenges, the evolution of careers over time, and how each woman made a difference. Sue Payton of the Technology Resource Center provided training and technical support. Students met with the women physicians in their offices and other locations to conduct interviews that averaged about an hour. The audio files of these interviews are housed at the Hamersly Library Archives. Students selected highlights from these interviews for their course portfolios and portions of those highlights are part of this exhibit.

We express our gratitude to the nine women physicians who agreed to share their stories and perspectives with us. Thank you for your generosity Doctors Melissa Beal, Nancy Boutin, Linda Cunningham, Cynthia Harper, Susan Laing, Lauren McNaughton, Jane Mossberg, Beverly Olsen and Marge Thompson.