With high hopes: women contract surgeons in World War I

Minerva: Quarterly Report on Women and the Military, Summer, 2002 by Mercedes Graf

On January 1, 1919, the Northern Pacific went aground on Fire Island, and Dr. John Ruddock was one of the medical officers on the transport. There were 2,000 wounded from the ship, the first large group that was being brought back after the Armistice was signed. During the transfer to shore, a lifeboat capsized and some of the wounded were overcome and in bad condition. Fortunately, some of the members from the laboratory, including Agnes Ruddock, were able to go down to the area and offer assistance. After the incident, the Secretary of War wrote a letter of appreciation praising the service she had rendered on that occasion. She eventually relocated to California with her husband and became a physician with the Health Department of the City Schools.

Dr. Jean C. Mendenhall graduated in 1907 from Drake University School of Medicine and lived and practiced in Hanover, New Hampshire. (31) Her husband was teaching at the medical school there when WWI started, and he was called to Washington D.C. to do research in T.N.T. poisoning. She remained behind to complete her teaching assignment before joining him in Washington where she applied for a surgeon's contract.

In keeping with the government's push on preventive medicine, Dr. Mendenhall was assigned to care for government women employees under the War Emergency Dispensary Service. She did routine examinations, vaccinated, diagnosed, and treated hundreds of women. Her work was made even more stressful when three men physicians who had been with the Service were sent overseas. After resigning because of delicate health in August of 1918, she was honorably discharged. She gave birth to a son a few months later and suspended her medical practice until he entered preparatory school. After that, she began to teach and lecture on family problems and issues, work that was compatible to being a wife and mother.

Born on April 20, 1868, Dr. Loy McAfee was older than some of the contract surgeons who volunteered for WWI service. (32) As a young woman, she married Dr. Inghram and then began to study medicine at the Medical College of Indiana where she was graduated in 1904. She engaged in medical editorial work in New York until May of 1918 when she was appointed a contract surgeon in Washington D.C. Here she worked on the preparation of materials for the Medical Department of the United States Army until her contact was annulled on June 30, 1921. At that point, she became assistant editor-in-chief with the government in a civilian capacity. In 1930, however, she accepted another contract with the government and was assigned to the Historical Section of the Army War College. Despite her commitment to medical research, she found time to study law and she received her degree (L.L.B) in 1926. She died on February 17, 1941, at Walter Reed Hospital of heart failure following abdominal surgery. She was a member of the Association of Military Surgeons.

It was also characteristic of some women physicians to put off marriage until they were well established in their careers although some chose to remain single and dedicate themselves to their work with no competing family interests. Either situation might be expected given the investment in time and training that was needed to get a medical degree, to say nothing of the commitment that was involved in launching a practice. In the case of Dr. Dolores M. Pinero (a graduate in 1913 from the College of Physicians and Surgeons, Boston, Massachusetts), she chose not to marry until many years after WWI ended. (33) When she decided to help in the war effort, however, she was practicing medicine in Puerto Rico.