Emily Dunning Barringer, MD — obstetrics and gynecology
Courtesy New York Times Archive
Dr. Emily Dunning Barringer (1876–1961) harnessed the benefits of a good education and gained the mentorship of a leading woman physician of her era, Dr. Mary Putnam Jacobi, to overcome barriers in her own career and to make it possible for other women physicians to serve their country during World War II. After first being denied an appointment at New York’s Gouverneur Hospital, she was later allowed to take up the position and became the hospital’s first woman medical resident and ambulance physician. During World War II, Barringer lobbied Congress to allow women physicians to serve as commissioned officers in the Army Medical Reserve Corps and in 1943, the passing of the Sparkman Act granted women physicians the right to receive commissions in the Army, Navy, and Public Health Service.
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