“…In Preference to a Better Qualified Woman”: Remembering Pharmacy Pioneer and Women’s Rights Activist Nellie Wakeman
Home > Points > “…In Preference to a Better Qualified Woman”: Remembering Pharmacy Pioneer and Women’s Rights Activist Nellie Wakeman
This post is from Points, the joint blog of AIHP and the Alcohol and Drugs History Society. Points publishes original reflections about the history of drugs, medicines, alcohol, pharmacy, and their allied fields.
Nellie Wakeman through the years: in 1903, 1908, and 1939. Image courtesy of AIHP.
“Whenever a woman comes into competition with a man she must not only be as good but considerably better than the man who wants the same job,” explained Nellie Wakeman in a 1937 article about “Women in Pharmacy” for the American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education. Wakeman, who in 1913 had become the first (known) woman in the United States to receive a PhD in pharmacy, lamented that “even then the chances are about ten to one that it will be given to the man.”
Wakeman, who was the first—and at that time still the only—woman on the pharmacy faculty at the University of Wisconsin, described the employment situation in terms that may still be all too familiar for many women in the workplace today:
“And if the woman does get it, her salary will probably be less than that paid to men for the same work; moreover, arrangements are sometimes made that whatever of honor or credit accrues to the position will be directed to some male superior or colleague.”
Throughout her long teaching career at the University of Wisconsin School of Pharmacy from 1913 through 1946, Wakeman battled discrimination but was both a role model and a fierce advocate for women in pharmacy. In the male-dominated professions of pharmacy and academia, she routinely earned praise for her research, writing, and teaching, and she created a lasting legacy by encouraging her female students to pursue pharmaceutical and graduate education despite the prejudices of the era.
Please click the read more button below to see the rest of this post on Points by AIHP Assistant Director Greg Bond.
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The American Institute of the History of Pharmacy is documenting and preserving pharmacy stories and experiences during the COVID-19 global pandemic for the benefit of future historians and scholars. We seek to record the effects of this public health emergency on all types of pharmacy experiences. We invite you to share your pharmacy stories, photos, videos, artifacts, and other documentation of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic.