Being a woman and even living like a human being in male-dominated societies has been difficult in every period of human history and unfortunately it is very difficult today. How many women of letters, inventors, physicists, healers or chemists has written history? The names of the women who take part in every aspect of life and who produce, were never mentioned, just because those who wrote the history were generally men.
Of course there are some exceptions. One of these exceptions is the Ancient Greek Agnodice, who gave up freely living her own gender identity for her dreams and ideals.
M.O. A woman named Agnodice, born in 300 BC, was against this ban.
She wanted to fulfill her biggest dream, so she cut her hair and dressed as a man and entered medical school in Alexandria. He completed his medical education without anyone noticing. One day, while walking through the streets of Athens, he heard the screams of a woman, when he went to her, he realized that he was in labor pain.
Agnodice wanted to intervene immediately, but she didn’t want him to touch her because she thought he was a man. Agnodice discreetly took off her clothes to show she was a woman and gave birth to the writhing woman.
Later this event spread among the women and they began to go to Agnodice to give birth.
The fact that this new doctor was attracting so much attention caught the attention of male doctors. Jealous of her attracting many clients, male doctors accused Agnodice, who they still thought was a man, of seducing female patients.
Agnodice, who was brought to court with this charge, had to confess that she was a woman when she was sentenced to death. This time, he was sentenced to death on the grounds that he studied medicine and practiced medicine.
After this decision, women revolted, and even the wives of male judges who had given the death penalty showed their reactions.
Some women resisted so fiercely that they said, “If Agnodice is executed, we will die with her.” Unable to withstand the intense pressures of their wives and other women, the judges lifted Agnodice’s sentence and allowed women to practice medicine as well, provided that they only looked after women.
Thus, Agnodice went down in history as the first female doctor and gynecologist.
It seems very natural to us that female doctors can do their job today, but it was not easy to achieve the firsts. Women who have struggled for many things for centuries still continue to struggle on many issues. We hope that one day perfect equality will be achieved.
Sources: 1, 2
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