For nearly a century, this doctor kept a secret. Had anyone found out, jail would have been certain and a lifetime of accomplishments would have been wiped away. Accomplishments that included a groundbreaking caesarean section and decades of public health reform across the British Empire. This doctor proved, by simply doing the work, that every argument ever made for keeping women out of medicine was fiction. Not a matter of opinion. The proof is in the surgeries performed, the lives saved, the hospitals transformed, the water supply improved, the patients who went home when they would otherwise have died.

So, Who is She? is about telling the stories of women the world forgot to mention and whose accomplishments were buried, forgotten or lost. This episode will feature one woman’s amazing story. Be sure to listen to the end where I will reveal their name.

References for Episode:

• James Barry (surgeon) — Wikipedia

• The Extraordinary Secret Life of Dr. James Barry — HISTORY

• The Extraordinary Life of Margaret Ann Bulkley aka Dr James Barry — Guide London

• Margaret Ann Bulkley (James Barry) — Embryo Project Encyclopedia, ASU

• James Barry — University of Edinburgh College of Medicine

• How History Keeps Ignoring James Barry — Science History Institute

• Why This Groundbreaking British Doctor Was Almost Erased From the History Books — Atlas Obscura

• Dr James Barry: The surgeon defying gender norms — Thackray Museum of Medicine

• James Barry: The Girl Who Became a Man, Fought with Florence Nightingale — War History Online

• Dr James Barry — The National Archives

• A Surgeon and a Gentleman: The Life of James Barry — Hektoen International

• Ghost That Lingers: Dr James Barry and Lord Charles Somerset — Chavonnes Battery Museum

• Breaking Barriers, Bending Gender: The Remarkable Tale of Dr James Barry — PAJT

• Herstory: James Barry — RTÉ Culture