Australian
Screen

Clip description

Sophia Whist (Robin Laurie) opens the pages of her evidence book and imparts the story of women’s historical exclusion from medical practice. Marjory Thomas talks about the difficulties faced by Jessie Freeman, one of the first women to study medicine at Sydney University.

Curator’s notes

Robin Laurie, now a well-known theatre director, had been an original member of Soapbox Circus and Circus Oz. Sophia uncovers pages in the book of evidence (designed by Julie Cunningham who also did all the film’s animation sequences) and performs the role of a 16th century English bishop. She reveals how women, who commonly practised healing throughout the Middle Ages, were systematically excluded from medicine in the centuries that followed.

In Australia, it wasn’t until the early 1900s that universities admitted any women to their medical faculties. The 94-year-old Dr Marjory Thomas graduated from medicine at Sydney University during the First World War and, fortunately for her, women doctors were welcomed into the fraternity out of need. Marjory tells the story of Jessie Freeman (more commonly known as Jessie Aspinall). Jessie graduated from medicine at Sydney University in 1906 and was appointed as the first female medical resident at RPAH. However the hospital’s board immediately refused to confirm her appointment. Marjory talks about the media and public outrage the action provoked. This was largely sparked after Jessie’s father wrote a long letter to the Sydney Morning Herald on 9 February 1906. Eventually the board capitulated, but determined that her appointment was ‘not to be taken as a precedent’.