ABOVE: PUBLIC HEALTH IMAGE LIBRARY
It was touch and go whether Jean Macnamara would be able to work at Melbourne’s Royal Children’s Hospital. When she sought employment there after graduating with a medical degree from the University of Melbourne in the early 1920s, hospital authorities were openly reluctant to hire a woman, telling Macnamara that there weren’t appropriate toilet facilities on the premises. Macnamara ended up getting the position, but it wouldn’t be the last time she faced resistance from the medical community.
A few years later, a polio epidemic hit Melbourne. The disease, which had been on the rise since the late 1800s and had recently caused a devastating outbreak in New York City, was notorious for its effect on children, who, in severe cases, died or were left paralyzed. At the time, not much was known about polio other than that it was a viral disease, says Gareth ...
