Mary was born in Birregurra in regional
Victoria, winning a scholarship to the University of Melbourne and
graduating in medicine in 1910. Mary worked at St. Vincent’s Hospital and
the Royal Eye and Ear Hospital, giving up her career as a doctor in
Australia in 1920 to go to India to minister to the poorest women and
children. She became a religious sister with the Society of Jesus Mary
Joseph in Guntur. For many years she was the only doctor in her area and
ministered to thousands of patients who would not otherwise have received
care. Along the way, she founded the Catholic Health Association of India
(CHAI) whose members today provide care for 21 million people a year. Mary
died in 1957. (Source:
ACU)
A
humanitarian, advocate for women’s rights and a systems thinker, Mary
devoted her life to improving healthcare in India, where she expanded a
small mission into a full hospital that cared for 637,000 patients between
1927 and 1936. She went on to establish health care systems and institutions
that now look after more than 21 million people annually.
Inspired by the church’s teachings on social justice, Mary sought to change
society not just through prayer but action. Her profound faith, compassion
for others and brilliant intellect, juxtaposed with a humble and shy nature,
led her to push the boundaries of the roles that women could play in
society. (Source:
University of Melbourne)
Introduction
Born on 23 June 1887 in Birregurra, Victoria - about
135 km west of Melbourne - Mary Glowrey was the third of nine children.(Source:
Sydney Catholic News)
She was the third of nine children, and spent most of
her childhood at Watchem in Victoria's Mallee. Her parents were of Irish
descent.(Source:
Women
Australia)
Education
She attended the local primary school where she trained as a student teacher
before winning a state secondary scholarship to attend the South Melbourne
College. She boarded at the Good Shepherd Convent, Rosary Place, South
Melbourne. Winning a University Exhibition she began an
Arts degree at the University of Melbourne, but transferred to medicine,
graduating MBBS in 1910 and MD in 1919.(Source:
Women
Australia)
In 1904 she was awarded a
scholarship to Ormond College to study for a Bachelor of Arts. But she
switched to medicine in early 1906, a time when there were few female
medical students at the University of Melbourne.
In her autobiography Mary writes that when she first thought of switching
courses a doctor warned her “the study of medicine would deprive me of all
womanly dignity”.
Before studying medicine, her favourite subject had been Greek poetry and
she fondly remembered the enthusiasm of her tutor at Ormond College.
“In the strength of the breeze he himself created, his University gown used
to float behind him as he strode to and fro before us, exclaiming
ecstatically: ‘Shakespeare could not have done better; he could not have
done better’,’’ she wrote.
Mary began her medical career at the newly-founded Clinical School at St
Vincent’s Hospital in 1910. However, at the time, no medical residency
positions were available for women in Melbourne so she moved to New Zealand,
where she was the first woman to be granted a medical residency.
When Mary returned to Victoria, she focussed on improving the health of
underprivileged women and children and founded the Catholic Women’s Social
Guild. She supported this work herself through her appointments at St
Vincent’s Hospital, the Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital and her private
practice. Long before bulk billing she was treating the unemployed and
impoverished free of charge.
(Source:
University of Melbourne)
In 1911,Glowery became the
first medical woman to be appointed as a resident in a New Zealand
hospital, at Christchurch. On her return she, like several of the
other early women doctors worked to improve the health and welfare
of Victorian women and children, while maintaining positions at the
Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital, St Vincent's Hospital and setting up
a private practice in Collins Street, Melbourne. She also
established a baby health clinic in Camberwell to make information
about the health care of infants freely available and, during some
of the big strikes of the period, helped to establish soup kitchen
for the strikers and their families as well as providing for their
medical needs. (Source:
Women Australia)
'A chance reading in 1915 of
a pamphlet about the appalling death rate amongst babies' was to
change the direction of her life (Fahy and Strickland). Inspired by
the work of Dr Agnes Mclaren, an English pioneer medical woman who
went to India at age 72 to establish a Catholic hospital for women,
she undertook further study in the fields of gynaecology, obstetrics
and ophthamology to prepare herself for mission work.(AWR).
In 1920,
she left Australia to join the Congregation of the Society of Jesus,
Mary and Joseph (a Dutch order) as its first nun-doctor missionary.
Between 1927 and 1936, Dr Sr Mary cared for more than 637,000
patients. She played a pioneering role in the education of Indian
doctors, nurses, midwives and pharmacists and established the
Catholic Hospital Association of India in 1942.
(Source:
Women Australia)
Dr Mary Glowrey became a religious sister with
the Society of Jesus Mary Joseph in Guntur, India.
See where Guntur is on this map
Did You Know?
One of the first hurdles Mary faced [in India] was that neither
priests nor nuns were permitted to practise medicine at that time.
Fortunately, Pope Benedict XV granted special permission for Mary to
practise medicine, making her the world’s first nun-doctor
missionary.
(Source:
University of Melbourne)
Her Legacy
But it was her work in global health which is
perhaps most inspiring and is one of the key aspects of her life which is
being explored as part of her cause for canonisation
[being declared a saint by the Catholic Church].
Mary’s approach to global health was ahead of her time and was more
consistent with a contemporary health-development paradigm. She was what we
today would call a systems thinker, in that she developed processes and
structures to promote efficient and sustainable healthcare delivery to the
poor.
For example, perhaps inspired by the sheer size of the task in improving
health care for India’s burgeoning and needy population, she pioneered
institutions to educate Indian doctors, nurses, midwives and pharmacists.
She was instrumental in establishing St John’s Bangalore, one of the most
respected medical colleges in India, which today trains thousands of
doctors, nurses and allied health professionals who work across India.
One of Mary’s most important contributions to developing a more efficient
and effective system was her work in establishing networks and
collaborations. Those of us in global health now take this for granted in
healthcare planning in low and middle-income settings.
In 1942 she established the Catholic Hospital Association of India (CHAI),
which stands as perhaps her most enduring and impacting legacy. CHAI was
created to promote the health of the marginalised across India. It has now
become the world’s largest health network, boasting 3518 member
institutions, including 2263 health centres, 417 secondary care hospitals,
183 tertiary care hospitals, 200 social service societies, five medical
colleges and 120 nursing schools.
There are now over a thousand sister-doctors across CHAI following in Mary’s
footsteps.
In recognising Mary’s tremendous contributions to
health, St Vincent’s Health Australia and the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry
and Health Sciences at the University of Melbourne have established the Sr
Dr Mary Glowrey Scholars Program to support health professionals from CHAI
to gain training and skills in Melbourne. CHAI director Rev Dr Father Mathew
Abraham is currently in Melbourne to inaugurate the new program.
Mary was recognised by the Catholic Church as a “Servant of God” in 2013,
the first of four official approvals towards sainthood. (Source:
University of Melbourne)
Aboriginal
Kids
Health - Creating a Social Media Campaign around preventing school sores
Middle
Secondary
Australian
Curriculum General Capability:
Literacy
Australian
Curriculum General Capability:Critical & Creative Thinking
Australian
Curriculum General Capability: Ethical Understanding
Australian
Curriculum Cross Curriculum Priorities:
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures
Cooperative
Learning Activity
Background
Mary Glowery went to India to solve the
health problems amongst the poor. She was a visionary who worked around the
Indian health bureaucracy to achieve better health outcomes across India
that still can be experienced today.
1. You are to help with the antibiotic shortages
for Aboriginal kids at risk with school sores by creating a
social media campaign.