Emily Siedeberg

On International Women’s Day I’d love to celebrate Emily Siedeberg - New Zealand’s first woman medical graduate. Born at Clyde in 1873, her family moved to Dunedin when she was 3. She went to Otago Girls’ High School, and with her father, they ‘tackled together the formalities’ for her to enrol into the Otago School of Medicine in 1890. The University allowed women to enrol, although there was some reluctance and disapproval amongst others at that time. But she was successfully admitted to study in 1891 and graduated in 1896. As the only female in the class, she was quite isolated and experienced ‘one trifling occasion when a few pieces from another dissecting table came in my direction'. She was determined and courageous, and through her career in medicine and community work, she did so much to improve women’s health and welfare. She was one incredible local woman. Information from Te Ara Encyclopaedia of NZ online (a great read!)