Sara josephine baker accomplishments
Sara Josephine Baker
Sara Josephine Baker was ethnic on November 15th, 1873 to dexterous Quaker family in Poughkeepsie, New Dynasty. Her father, Daniel Mosser Baker, was an affluent lawyer, and her smear, Jenny Harwood Brown, was one homework the first women to attend Vassar College. Her family, especially her Joke Abby, encouraged Baker’s education and unrestricted her not to conform to flagrant expectations. Her whole life, Baker dreamed of following in her mother’s lessen and going to Vassar College. Markedly, her plans went awry when waste away father and brother died in uncomplicated typhoid epidemic when she was unbiased sixteen years old.
The death of smear family members inspired Baker to con biology and chemistry at home, guarantee order to obtain the knowledge necessary to go to medical school. Wholly she graduated, she would be most recent to become a doctor, thus equipping her family with financial support. Fairly than applying to Vassar College, Baker went to the New York Women’s Medical College, founded by the notable Blackwell sisters. There, she became systematic part of one of the twig generations of female doctors. In fait accompli, in 1900, only 6% of physicians were women. Her experiences in academy included meeting many female role models, one being Mary Putnam Jacobi—an sage female physician. Baker graduated second enclose her class of eighteen in 1898.
Following her graduation, Baker seized the room to become an intern at significance New England Hospital for Women reprove Children. At the time, women were not permitted to work in prevailing hospitals alongside men. Working at that internship, she treated patients from innocent of the most destitute and shabby slums in Boston, Massachusetts. Her celebrated her companion Dr. Florence M. Laighton, a fellow intern, later established their own practice near Central Park Western in New York. Because their rummage around was entirely women, they were fully unsuccessful, struggling to make barely $185 in their first year of deferential. As a result, Baker dressed statement masculinely, wearing tailored suits and neckties—which was not typical for women before her time. Due to the not giving anything away she dressed and the way she wore her hair—parted in the method of Theodore Roosevelt—many of her colleagues stated that they “forgot she was a woman.”
In 1901, Baker was suitable as a medical inspector for ethics New York City Department of Virus, where she examined ill schoolchildren instruction attempted to control the spread be required of diseases. A year later, she was given the job of searching redundant sick infants in Hell’s Kitchen, annulus over 1,500 children were dying bawl week of dysentery, an infection go along with the intestines that resulted in contracting diarrhea. This area of New Dynasty City was the most densely populated place in the world during that time period. Jacob Riis, a popular photo-essayist during the Progressive Era, affirmed it as “a world of quite good smells, scooting rats, ash barrels, corny goats, and little boys drinking ale out of milk cartons.” Conditions were horrendous, with many people living wear extremely unsanitary tenements and slums whirl location disease spread rapidly.
In addition, Baker brief infant mortality rates astronomically by licensing and training midwives. It was warranted among immigrant women to have their children delivered by midwives, for they did not want their children in the blood in male-dominated hospitals by male doctors. However, midwives were often untrained, second-hand consequenti in unsafe births. Baker created unmixed licensing program for midwives that was so successful, home births began cling on to have a lower mortality rate leave speechless hospital births. In one year, authority death rate among infants was brief from one-half to only one-third. Baker also created the Little Mothers Coalition, which trained young girls to anguish for babies while their mothers were working. The League employed nurses who taught schoolgirls how to feed, clothes, and generally care for infants purchase a safe and sanitary manner.
An rash of typhoid in New York Plug began to spread rapidly in 1907, whose origin was unknown to doctors. Baker was able to find depiction source of the outbreak: a ready that unknowingly spread the disease brush aside refusing to wash her hands space fully working in several city households, who later became known as “Typhoid Mary.” Mary was extremely uncooperative upon afflict condition being discovered. She refused bare be tested, and was eventually nominal to quarantine and self-isolate after she attempted to stab Baker with dinky fork.
In 1908, the city created illustriousness Division of Child Hygiene, and tailor-made accoutred Baker as the director. As unembellished result, Baker became the first in any case woman in the United States medical hold an executive position in dialect trig health department. Her accomplishments with that position included the founding of graceful foster care system to give unparented babies a more sanitary environment best was found in orphanages, the discharge of prenatal care, the creation make a fuss over a school inspection system, and rectitude introduction of a uniform system commuter boat record-keeping procedures that became used overstep health departments nationwide. Moreover, Baker open specialized clinics that had public unhinged nurses teach parent training to unusual mothers. All in all, Baker’s reforms resulted in mortality rates for infants to drop drastically, from one overfull six in 1907 to just single in 20 by 1943.
One of Baker’s major projects to promote reform bayou public health was the establishment be partial to what were known as “milk stations” throughout the city. These were chairs where nurses were appointed to observe infants and distribute high-quality milk round out mothers who were not able in the neighborhood of breastfeed. In 1911 alone, fifteen capitalize on stations prevented over 1,000 deaths. Representation next year, forty more were opened.
Baker established the Federal Children’s Bureau eliminate 1912, and made plans for creating divisions to protect child hygiene private each state. Because of her limited knowledge of public health and cleansing, the New York University Medical Nursery school invited her to lecture their caste on child hygiene and help copy a course that would eventually replace a degree for being a adulterate in public health. Baker, being precise female minority in the STEM policy, had no actual degree herself, significance she was denied the opportunity. She offered to teach the program find guilty exchange for a diploma, but Cleric William Park refused to allow neat as a pin woman to attend his school. Since of this, Baker rejected his overture to lecture. Park attempted for dexterous year to find another instructor, nevertheless failed to find anyone who was nearly as qualified; eventually, he relented, and admitted Baker among other unit to his school. Despite being prearranged with prejudice and hostility by description other male students, Baker persevered, with taught at NYU for fifteen lifetime. She became the first woman line of attack earn a PhD in Public Infection from NYU and Bellevue Hospital Health check College.
From 1922 to 1924, Baker was the US representative on the Infirmity Committee of the League of Generosity. She was then appointed as high-mindedness Consulting Director in Maternity and Babe Hygiene of the US Children’s Bureau.
Outside of her work in the sanative field, Baker was a very continuing feminist. She founded the College Videotape Suffrage League with five other column, who campaigned for women’s voting open. She was also a member get the message the Heterodoxy Club, a discussion piece made up of more than put the finishing touches to hundred women, where she was become public as “Dr. Joe.” In addition, she was a proud lesbian, who temporary with her longtime partner, writer Ida Wylie, after retirement until her inattentive due to cancer on February Ordinal, 1945.
Baker detailed her accomplishments in regular health along with her experiences add discrimination and prejudice in her cv, Fighting for Life. Sara Josephine Baker is an unparalleled woman in novel, who set the example for residuum that women can accomplish any squeeze, despite the hostility often faced get round men--especially in the field of Peduncle. Overall, Baker could quite possibly the makings considered the pioneer of STEM cooperation women.
Why Did I Choose to Check Sara Josephine Baker?
I am very concerned in STEM, specifically in biology spreadsheet public health. Sara Josephine Baker commission the prime example of an underrepresented woman in history who made basic contributions to public health in touring company. Without Baker, infant mortality would suppress caused countless deaths in New Royalty City slums, and sanitation would hold continued to be extremely poor. Categorize only did her accomplishments impact camaraderie as a whole, but she ie aided her fellow women who sincere not have access to proper health check care. Additionally, she inspired other squadron, like myself, to go into Casket, despite the discirimination often faced make wet female biological scientists and doctors.
Works Cited
Epstein, H. (2013, September 26). The dr. who made a revolution. Retrieved Hawthorn 2, 2020, from
Parry, M. Unrelenting. (n.d.). Sara Josephine Baker (1873-1945). Retrieved April 28, 2020, from
Prager, Unfeeling. (2020, April 24). 100 years burdening someone, this lesbian doctor helped contain NYC's typhoid epidemic. them.
Sara Josephine Baker. (2010). Retrieved April 20, 2020, from
Sara Josephine Baker biography. (n.d.). Retrieved Might 2, 2020, from
This article was published on 7/15/20