Celebrating Isala Van Diest

Google Dooles 24.11.2021 06:45  Date: November 24, 2021 Today’s Doodle celebrates the first woman to become a doctor in Belgium—Isala Van Diest. On this day in 1884, a government decree went into effect that allowed Van Diest to practice medicine in Belgium. Isala Van Diest was born in Leuven, Belgium in 1842. Her father was a doctor who owned a medical practice and her mother was active in progressive, feminist organizations. Van Diest made the decision early on to take over her father’s practice, marking a departure from gender conventions of the era. Unable to enroll in medical school in Belgium due to gender discrimination, Diest left home to study in Bern, Switzerland, where she became the first Belgian woman to graduate with a university degree in 1879. After a short stint in a British women’s hospital, Van Diest shifted her focus to opening her own practice, but many societal and institutional obstacles hindered her progress. Belgium finally began to allow women to formally study medicine in 1880, and in 1883, Van Diest graduated as a doctor of medicine, surgery, and obstetrics. Following years of working in a women’s refuge hospital and advocating for women’s rights, Diest at last opened her own practice in 1886. In honor of the 100th anniversary of International Women’s Day in 2011, the Belgian government issued a €2 coin in Van Diest’s honor alongside Belgium's first woman lawyer, . In Brussels, the street of Van Diest's former practice was named in her honor in 2018. Here’s to a medical trailblazer—Isala Van Diest! Early draft of the Doodle: Location: Tags: , , ,