Continuing our deep dive into the history of the RCSI Biological Society (check out last month’s BioSoc post for LGBT+ History Month ), we’re flying the flag for the first women of BioSoc this International Women’s Day. The RCSI Biological Society (BioSoc) is the official student society of RCSI and one of the oldest student medical societies in the world. Women have been consistently well-represented in successive BioSoc Committees since its inception in the 1930s. The Society appointed its first female President - Dr Margaret (Pearl) Dunleavy - in 1951. Two decades earlier, the opening paper presented at the first Inaugural Meeting in Feb 1932 – on a case of Henoch-Schonlein purpura - was read by a woman, Miss Johnson, prompting a formal note of thanks to be entered in the minutes 'for allowing a woman to read the first paper.' Miss Mary Teresa McQuaid presenting a paper titled ‘Polyserositis in a Young Male Child’ to assembled BioSoc attendees, 20 November 1947 Intellectual
The historic RCSI Biological Society (BioSoc) is the official student society of RCSI and one of the oldest student medical societies in the world. Trawling through the minutes of BioSoc meetings recently, we were struck by the number of papers delivered on the subject of human sexuality as far back as the early 1940s: 2 May 1940 ' Sex Development Normal & Abnormal', presented by Mr D Early 5 March 1942 'Sex and Life', presented by Mr J Carri 5 May 1943 ' Homosexuality', presented by Mr R Poole Though the papers themselves have not survived, the topics under consideration and the nature of the discussions that ensued among those in attendance were captured to varying degrees in the minutes of these BioSoc meetings. RCSI Biological Society members, late 1940s-early 1950s The Science of Sexuality BioSoc offered an unusually open forum for discussion of sex and sexuality at a time when it was still regarded as taboo within mainstream a