Matilda J. Clerk
Ghanaian physician and science educator (1916 – 1984) / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Matilda Johanna Clerk (2 March 1916 – 27 December 1984) was a medical pioneer and a science educator on the Gold Coast and later in Ghana as well as the second Ghanaian woman to become an orthodox medicine-trained physician.[1][2] The first woman in Ghana and West Africa to attend graduate school and earn a postgraduate diploma, Clerk was also the first Ghanaian woman in any field to be awarded an academic merit scholarship for university education abroad.[1][3] M. J. Clerk was the fourth West African woman to become a physician after Nigerians, Agnes Yewande Savage (1929), the first West African woman medical doctor and Elizabeth Abimbola Awoliyi (1938) in addition to Susan de Graft-Johnson, née Ofori-Atta (1947), Ghana's first woman physician.[1][4][5][6][7][8] These pioneering physicians were all early advocates of maternal health, paediatric care and public health in the sub-region.[1][4][9][10] For a long time after independence in 1957, Clerk and Ofori-Atta were the only two women doctors in Ghana.[3] By breaking the glass ceiling in medicine and other institutional barriers to healthcare delivery, they were an inspiration to a generation of post-colonial Ghanaian and West African female doctors at a time the field was still a male monopoly and when the vast majority of women worldwide had very limited access to biomedicine and higher education.[1][3] Pundits in the male-dominated medical community in that era described Matilda J. Clerk as "the beacon of emancipation of Ghanaian womanhood."[3][11]
Matilda Johanna Clerk | |
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Born | Matilda Johanna Clerk (1916-03-02)2 March 1916 |
Died | 27 December 1984(1984-12-27) (aged 68) |
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Awards | Gold Coast Medical Scholar |
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