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Against the Odds

New Zealand's first women doctors
By Michaela Selway and Cynthia Farquhar
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Brief Description
In 2025, the year in which the Otago medical school celebrates 150 years, 50 per cent of graduates are women. Back in 1891 when Emily Seideberg, who would go on to become the school’s first woman graduate, applied for entrance, it was not at all clear... Read More
Format: Paperback / softback
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The women who battled prejudice and indifference to become doctors

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In 2025, the year in which the Otago medical school celebrates 150 years, 50 per cent of graduates are women. Back in 1891 when Emily Seideberg, who would go on to become the school’s first woman graduate, applied for entrance, it was not at all clear that it would be granted. There was active hostility in many quarters to the very idea that women could be doctors.

Against the Odds traces the paths of the women who, between the 1880s and 1967 (when the Auckland medical school opened), battled indifference and chauvinism and, later, many of the other challenges that faced women in the professions, to become New Zealand’s first women doctors. Their stories are often remarkable and the contribution to research, medical breakthroughs and improved patient care is to be honoured.

Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9781991016980

Publisher: Massey University Press

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 05 June 2025

Country: New Zealand

Imprint: Massey University Press

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 27.0mm

Width: 163.0mm

Height: 230.0mm

Weight: 600g

Pages: 344

Collections

Aotearoa New Zealand History Best Sellers at Book Hero Biography & Memoir Cynthia Farquhar Education & Reference History & Archaeology History & Military In Stock Books Michaela Selway New to Book Hero New Zealand and Australia Published New Zealand Biographies New Zealand History New Zealand Non-Fiction New Zealand Published Non-Fiction Science & Technology Biographies

About the Author

Professor Cynthia (Cindy) Farquhar is the daughter of an early medical woman (Meredyth Gunn; 1952). Cindy trained in medicine and graduated from the School of Medicine at the University of Auckland in 1981. She trained in obstetrics and gynaecology in New Zealand and London and is the Postgraduate Professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the University of Auckland. She has been the recipient of several research awards, most recently the Beaven Medal in 2024.

Michaela Selway is a PhD student in early medieval history at the University of Tübingen, Germany. She received her Master of Arts in History from the University of Auckland in 2020 and has worked as a historical researcher for the Early Medical Women of New Zealand project since that time. Her doctoral research is supported by the Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes research scholarship for academic excellence.

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