Jennie Smillie Robertson
| Jennie Smillie Robertson | |
|---|---|
Jennie Smillie | |
| Born | February 10, 1878 Hensall, Ontario, Canada |
| Died | February 26, 1981 (aged 103) |
| Resting place | Mount Pleasant Cemetery |
| Education | Ontario Medical College for Women (merged into University of Toronto), M.D. 1909 |
| Occupation | Physician and surgeon |
| Employer | Women's Medical College of Pennsylvania, Women's College Hospital |
| Known for | First female surgeon in Canada |
| Spouse(s) | Alex Robertson |
Jennie Robertson (February 10, 1878 – February 26, 1981) was a Canadian obstetrics and gynaecology surgeon and physician. She was the first modern female surgeon in Canada and performed the country's first major gynecological surgery.[1] Born on a farm, she displayed an interest in medicine from an early age. Smillie taught school and saved her salary to pay for medical school. She attended the Ontario Medical College for Women through its absorption into the University of Toronto. Smillie helped re-found it as today's Women's College Hospital after no hospital would let her perform surgery. At age 70 she married her childhood sweetheart Alex Robertson. She died at age 103, in 1981.
Early life and education[edit]
Born on February 10, 1878, as Jennie Smillie on a farm outside of Hensall, Ontario,[2][3] she was the fourth child of Benjamin Smillie (1839–1886) and his wife, Jane Smillie (née Buchanan) (1849–1906). Smillie had six siblings.[4] Later in life, she told another female doctor friend, "I was only 3 when I first thought about being a doctor. I heard of a woman missionary doctor. When I was 5 I asked my mother if women could be doctors. She told me they could and from then on I knew that is what I would do."[4]
During her childhood, both her parents were interested in education; since they lived on a farm, she and her siblings walked two and a half miles to attend public schools in Hensall. Later, Smillie paid for room and board to attend public schools in Seaforth, Ontario.[5]
Smillie was educated initially as a teacher and worked until she was 25[5] so that she could save from her salary to attend the Ontario Medical College for Women.[6] In 1906, during her second year of medical school, the College was merged into the University of Toronto’s medical school, making the amalgamated school coeducational; some of the women felt hostility from their male peers, though Smillie viewed the women as a positive influence on the young men.[6] She graduated in 1909.[1]
Career[edit]
Although Smillie had graduated, medical internships in Canada were difficult for women to obtain;[5] no hospital in Toronto would take her as a resident intern, so she completed an internship at Philadelphia's Women's Medical College.[6][7] In 1910, she returned to Canada and set up her practice, but as no doctors would train her, she traveled again to Philadelphia. She underwent six months of intensive training under another woman surgeon, including a week where she oversaw a surgical ward. She stated this experience built her confidence significantly.[4]
After her second return to Toronto, no hospital would allow her to perform surgery. She performed an oophorectomy to remove an ovarian tumor[4] using daylight on a patient's kitchen table.[5][6] She was the first physician, and the first woman, to perform major gynecological surgery in Canada.[6] This surgery was also the first major gynecological surgery done in a patient's home.[1] As a result, Smillie became the first woman surgeon in the country.[1]
Due to their lack of options, an increasing number of female patients wanting their services,[4] and a growing number of women physicians in Canada,[5] Smillie and her female colleagues re-established the Ontario Medical College for Women as the Women's College Hospital. It was first located inside rented houses before a building could be built.[4] At the Women's College Hospital, she held the chairmanship of the Gynecology Department from 1912 to 1942.[6] In the early days the hospital's financial difficulties led the founding women doctors to gather vegetables from farmers' wives to feed their patients.[7] During her career, Smillie mainly performed abdominal and gynecological surgeries.[4] In 1948, she retired.[7]
Outside of the hospital, Smillie was a founding member of an organization for Canadian women in medicine,[1][8] the Federation of Medical Women of Canada, and was at one point the president of the Women's Liberal Association. She was politically active in liberal causes.[5]
Last years and legacy[edit]
After her retirement, Smillie married widower Alex Robertson, her childhood sweetheart, when she was 70. She commented that, "I first met the man I was to marry many years later, in 1898 while I was teaching. At that time I was planning for medicine, not marriage, and I didn’t think I could have both."[1][5] At that point, she had met him forty years previously.[5] He died ten years later.[4] Smillie died in a nursing home on February 26, 1981, at the age of 103 and is buried in Mount Pleasant Cemetery, Toronto.[3]
In 2013, Hensall, Ontario dedicated and named a pocket park in her honor.[2]
In 2016, Smillie was one of the nominees to be the first woman to have her likeness appear on a Canadian banknote.[9] However, early civil rights activist Viola Desmond was chosen to the be the first woman—and black person—to be honoured in this way.[10]
References[edit]
- ^ a b c d e f Wirtzfeld, Debrah A. (August 2009). "The history of women in surgery". Canadian Journal of Surgery. 52 (4): 317–320. ISSN 0008-428X. PMC 2724816. PMID 19680519.
- ^ a b Nixon, Scott (2013-07-17). "Parkette to honour Canada's first female surgeon". SouthWesternOntario.ca. Retrieved 2018-08-22.
- ^ a b Filey, Mike. "Jennie Smillie Robertson". Mount Pleasant Group. Retrieved 2018-08-22.
- ^ a b c d e f g h "Dr. Jennie Smillie Robertson Woman Surgeon Was First to Enter Practice in Canada". The Globe and Mail. Toronto. 1981-03-03. p. 11. ISSN 0319-0714 – via Proquest.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Ogilvie, Marilyn; Harvey, Joy (2003-12-16). The Biographical Dictionary of Women in Science: Pioneering Lives From Ancient Times to the Mid-20th Century. 2003: Routledge. p. 1109. ISBN 9781135963439.
- ^ a b c d e f "International Women's Day 2017". Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology. Retrieved 2018-08-22.
- ^ a b c Youngberg, Gail; Holmlund, Mona (2003). Inspiring Women: A Celebration of Herstory. Regina, Sasketchewan: Coteau Books. p. 143. ISBN 9781550502046.
- ^ Brearton, Steve (Spring 2018). "Builders & Pioneers | Business Leaders and Pioneers Who Went to U of T". University of Toronto Magazine. Retrieved 2018-08-22.
- ^ "History". villageofhensall.com. Retrieved 2018-08-28.
- ^ Kassam, Ashifa (2018-03-09). "Civil Rights Pioneer Viola Desmond is First Canadian Woman on Currency". The Guardian. Retrieved 2018-08-28.