Title: The Difficult Path to a Free Choice of Profession – Indomitable Women Following in the Footsteps of Hippocrates – PDF
Abstract: The topic of women represents a complex of problems concerning the position of women in families and society. The fight of women for the right to work in medicine is an excellent example of the societal conditions that slowed the social mobility of women and their access to professions which were associated with high social prestige. It was as late as 1895 that legislation was adopted in the Kingdom of Hungary that allowed women to study at faculties of medicine. Yet, institutions still retained their reserved attitude towards the recruitment of women. Maria Bellova (1911) was the first Slovakian female physician to graduate in medicine, more female physicians only slowly arrived. There was only a steeper increase in their numbers in the second half of the 20th century; however, several of them made significant contributions to the organisation of the health care system in Slovakia and abroad. This paper aims to present an interdisciplinary view of this topic, focusing on the conditions that led to the recognition of women in the medical profession from an international and historical perspective, from a Euro-Atlantic social context.
Authors: CAPÍKOVÁ, Silvia – FALISOVÁ, Anna
DOI: https://doi.org/10.17846/SHN.2026.30.1.99-120
Publication order reference: Comenius University, Faculty of Law, Department of Labour Law and Social Security Law, Šafarikovo namestie 6, P. O. Box 313, 811 02 Bratislava, Slovak Republic, mail: silvia.capikova@flaw.uniba.sk – corresponding author
Slovak Academy of Sciences, v. v. i., Institute of History, Klemensova 19, P. O. Box 198, 814 99 Bratislava, Slovak Republic, mail: anna.falisova@savba.sk
Source: Studia Historica Nitriensia, year: 2026, vol.: 30, number: 1, pages: 99-120
Keywords: Female Physicians; Professional Training; Access to Medical Profession; Social Rights; Female Representation in Medicine;
Language: English
Funding: The manuscript is one of the outputs of the research project, supported by VEGA, no. 1/0024/24 “Dejiny Lekárskej fakulty Univerzity Komenského v Bratislave 1948 – 1968. Fakulta, veda, osobnosti a spoločensky kontext od Februárového prevratu do vpádu vojsk Varšavskej zmluvy.”