Bulgarian women medical doctors in the social modernization of the Bulgarian nation state (1878-1944)

Abstract

'This paper presents empirical (both statistical and prosopographical) data about the professional cluster of women medical doctors in Bulgaria from the establishment of Bulgarian Nation State till the Second World War. Medical doctors in Bulgaria were a main part of national intellectual elites, formed as a professional group of the Bulgarian intelligentsia during the 1830s-1870s. The first Bulgarian woman graduated from a university in the very beginning of national independence (1878) and she was a medical doctor, Anastassia Golovina. 1) This paper deals with the education and training of Bulgarian women medical doctors. Data regarding their number, educational centers and migrations would be summoned in order to explain if the relevant social transformation was influenced by foreign experience. The paper summarizes facts concerning the professional career of Bulgarian women medical doctors: employment opportunities, career interruptions, discriminatory appointment and promotion practices, cultural stereotyping. Also their professional activity in promoting hygiene and vaccination, in school medical care and as pioneers in the fields of neurology and gynecology will be commented. Some biographical examples should be presented there. The paper dwells upon the social, political and cultural activities of women medical doctors. They were members and leaders of feminist, charity and Social-Democratic organizations, as well as gifted translators and publicists. The paper makes an attempt to compare the 'Bulgarian case' of women doctors with the experience of women doctors in the same period in the Southeastern and the Western Europe.' (author's abstract)|