WOMEN GAIN HIGH HONOURS

Southland Times, Issue 22999, 19 September 1936, Page 16

WOMEN GAIN HIGH HONOURS

Unique Achievements

Announcements of the appointment of women to important offices in different parts of the world appear in “Dawn,” and make interesting reading. To-day is the day of opportunity envisioned by the pioneers of the women’s movement forward from domesticity pure and simple, although there is a strong effort in a number of countries to check it and prevent any further advance.

One of the women mentioned is Mrs Phillipa Martin, who has been appointed Hunterian Professor by the Royal College of Surgeons. She is the first woman to hold this post, which is probably the highest honour that surgery offers. Mrs Martin is a native of Queensland,, her father being Canon Pughe, of Brisbane. Mrs Martin was the only woman in England to take her F.R.C.S. and Master of Surgery degrees at the first attempt. She is the mother of three children, and believes that a woman can run a home and follow a career. “It is very simple to do both,” she remarked, “and the home is happier because of it.” In medicine Ellen Pedersen has been appointed head of the Tuberculosis Sanatorium at Ry (Denmark). Eight candidates (of whom seven were men) applied for the post. Dr. Pedersen, who is a specialist in the treatment of tuberculosis, has the honour of being the only person to hold the title of “Overlaege,” or “Chief Doctor,” in Denmark. Ellen Saabye has been appointed head of the engineering department at the State Experimental Institute in Denmark. A number of women ate working as engineers in Denmark, but Miss Saabye is the first to be entrusted with tlie responsibilities of a department in the employment of the State. In naval architecture Miss Susan Denham Christie has graduated as Bachelor of Science. She is only 21 years of age, and has had a year’s practical experience in addition to the course at Armstrong College, Newcastle, where she was the only woman pupil. Miss Christie hopes some day to design big ships. Her father is the chairman of the Wallsend shipbuilding firm of Swan, Hunter, and Wigham Richardson.

Tatjana Lewensson has been appointed Consular Agent of the Soviet Union in Norway, being the first Russian woman to receive such a post. Other Russian appointments include that of Madame Kollantai, Ambassador to Norway where after serving some time, she has been transferred to a bigger position in Mexico. Madame Roymirwitch will be chief librarian of the newly-erected Lenin Library in Moscow, which contains more than 10 - 000,000 volumes, ’