A Historical Look at Women in the Eyecare Professional Community

September is Women of Achievement Month so we thought it would be appropriate to take a look at the women who made history in the eyecare professional community. We would like to introduce you to some notable women, we think you should know about, in the eyecare industry.

Women in Ophthalmology

Patricia Bath is the first African-American female physician to receive a patent for a medical invention. Inventions relate to cataract surgery and include the Laserphaco Probe, which revolutionized the industry in the 1980s, and an ultrasound technique for treatment. Bath also co-founded the American Institute for the Prevention of Blindness (1976) whose motto is “protect, preserve, and restore the gift of sight.”

Selwa Al-Hazzaa published many papers, but her most important paper was DUANES, which specialized in genetically inherited eye diseases in Saudi Arabia. In 1997, she became the first female department head in King Faisal Specialist Hospital, as she became the head of the ophthalmology department. She was also the late King Fahad’s personal ophthalmologist.

Ida Mann diagnosed a trachoma epidemic amongst Indigenous people in the Kimberleys and traveled extensively in Western Australia in order to examine and treat Indigenous people with trachoma. Mann published extensively in the area of eye anatomy and eye disease, publishing many scientific articles and several books. She also wrote on her travels and findings relating to trachoma. Most of her writings were published under her married name Ida Gye or a pseudonym, Caroline Gye.

Marilyn Miller is an American pediatric ophthalmologist specializing in the diagnosis and treatment of congenital eye diseases and strabismus. She has held leadership positions in her field, often as the first female in those positions. She was the first female to serve as president of the American Association for Pediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus, and also the first female board member of the American Academy of Ophthalmology.

Aida de Acosta Root Breckinridge became an advocate for improved eye care and was founder and director of the first eye bank in America, after losing sight in one of her eyes to glaucoma, in 1922. Her ophthalmologist was famed eye specialist William H. Wilmer, whom Time magazine called “the greatest eye surgeon the U.S. has ever had.” Dr. Wilmer’s care saved her other eye, and inspired her to organize a fund-raising campaign that resulted in $3 million to fund the establishment in 1925 of the Wilmer Eye Institute in Johns Hopkins Hospital, the first eye institute in the U.S. In 1945 she founded and became Executive Director of the Eye-Bank for Sight Restoration in New York, the first eye bank in the U.S

Isabel Hayes Chapin Barrows (1845–1913) was the first woman to practice ophthalmology in the United States, as well as the first woman appointed to a medical school faculty. Her accomplishments, she managed while financing her husband’s education and raising two children. Her list of achievements also includes serving in roles such as a missionary, editor, reporter, prison reformer and ambassador.

Regina Salomea Pilsztynowa, ophthalmologist in 18th-century Poland. Regina Salomea Rusiecki (later Pilsztynowa) was a young, poorly educated Polish Catholic woman in the 18th century who became well known in Eastern Europe and the Ottoman Empire because of her skill in the treatment of cataracts and some other medical problems. She was born in 1718, and at the age of 14 she married an experienced, but significantly older, German Lutheran physician and ophthalmologist, Jakob Halpir. By helping him eagerly in his work, Pilsztynowa learned a great deal of her husband’s way of treating cataracts and other ailments, and she ambitiously made use of the friendship and help of other physicians whom she met on her travels.

Else Steinert née Loewenheim is one of Germany’s first female specialist ophthalmologists. Merely tolerated as a guest listener, she conducted most of her studies in Leipzig (1900-1905) and acquired her doctor’s license there. During World War I she worked as assistant at the Ophthalmology Clinic at Leipzig University under Hubert Sattler (1844-1928), but soon thereafter was displaced by her male colleagues returning from the War. Between 1920 and 1937 the young widow and mother of three had a private practice, first in Leipzig and then in Idar-Oberstein, which was one of the first ophthalmology practices to be opened by a female doctor on a national scale. After the Nazis had seized power and she had thus been declared a Jew, her doctor’s license was withdrawn and in this manner she was deprived of her livelihood. To escape being deported to a concentration camp she fled and survived World War II in the countryside of Bavaria. Her MD thesis of 1920, of which only an eight-page abridged version has survived, is a contribution to the debate on the indication and prognosis of Elliot’s trepanation for the treatment of glaucoma. Based on her investigations she strongly recommended this operation for all patients with severe glaucoma.

Dr Georgiana Dvorak-Theobold was the first woman to win the Howe Medal in 1957 for her contributions to the ophthalmic world. She made many contributions to our understanding of ocular disease. Most importantly, three particular areas, the anatomy of the canal of Schlemm and its relation to the vascular system, the second is the pseudo-exfoliation of the lens capsule, the third area was the possible location of abnormal resistance to aqueous outflow in the collector channels. She joined the Illinois Eye and Ear Infirmary in 1915; she remained affiliated with them for her entire life. The American Board of Ophthalmology certified her in 1928; she became a full member in 1934.

Women in Optometry

Celia Sánchez-Ramos gained her PhD in Pharmacy in the area of Preventice Medicine in 1994. She is a well-established optician-optometrist and Tenure Lecturer at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid. She has filed 13 patents, including one for therapeutic contact lenses for pseudophakic eyes and/or eyes suffering neurodegeneration. The latter innovation led to her being awarded, in April 2009, the Best Invention presented by a Woman Inventor of 2009 prize (Premio a la Mejor Inventora del Año 2009) by the UN World Intellectual Property Organization, the Gold Medal (with congratulations of the jury) for the Best Invention in the Healthcare Area, and the Best Spanish Patent prize, awarded by the Spanish Office of Patents and Trademarks (Oficina Española de Patentes y Marcas).

Paula R. Newsome is the first African-American female Optometrist to practice in North Carolina, and the second African-American female Optometrist licensed by North Carolina. She is the first African American female in the U.S. to become a member of the American Academy of Optometry.

Mollie Wright Armstrong, she was the first woman optometrist in the state of Texas and only the second in the United States. After attending Baylor Female College, she studied at optometry schools in Georgia, Illinois, and Missouri. She began her practice in Brownwood in 1899. She was active in the passage of the first optometry law in Texas, became a member of the Texas Board of Examiners in Optometry, and served as vice president and president of the board, to which she belonged for twenty-four years. She was president of the Texas Optometric Association from 1923 to 1925 and at another time served as the association’s director of publicity. When the Texas Optometrist was first published, she was its editor. It was largely through her efforts that the first optometric professional liability policy was made available to optometrists nationwide, and she became a trustee of the American Optometric Association. In 1927, Dr. Armstrong was instrumental in organizing the Texas Woman’s Auxiliary to the American Optometric Association. That same year she was appointed a regional director of the American Optometric Association Auxiliary. In Brownwood, she was the organizer and first president of the American Legion Auxiliary, the Brownwood Business and Professional Women’s Club, and the Brownwood Civic League. She served as director of the Brownwood Chamber of Commerce and represented her district as a member of the State Democratic Executive Committee.

One of these two notable ladies, Fannie Gassett of Boston, MA and Gertrude M. Martin of Utica, New York are presumed to have the distinction of being the first woman optometrist in the American Academy of Optometry. Both ladies were on lists dating back to 1929, though the first published list of the American Academy of Optometry members is a geographical directory, which was first published in 1934. It is assumed, that since both women were on earlier unpublished lists that they were also among the earliest members of the Academy.

If you would like to know more about women in the eyecare professional community, please visit the Facebook pages and/or websites below. Both groups work tirelessly for women in our industry.

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