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Biography of Sara Josephine BakerName: Sara Josephine BakerBirth Date: November 15, 1873 Death Date: February 22, 1945 Place of Birth: Poughkeepsie, New York, United States Nationality: American Gender: Female Occupations: physician Sara Josephine Baker Sara Josephine Baker (1873-1945) was a physician working toward improving the public health care and reducing infant mortality rates substantially in New York City.Sara Josephine Baker was a pioneer in the field of public health and an activist in the women's movement. She was the first woman to receive a doctorate in public health. As the head of the Department of Health's newly created division of child hygiene, she reduced New York City's infant mortality rate to the lowest of all major cities worldwide. From 1922 to 1924 she represented the United States on the health committee of the League of Nations.Born on November 15, 1873, in Poughkeepsie, New York, Baker was the daughter of affluent parents. Her Quaker father, Orlando Daniel Mosser Baker, was a lawyer and her mother was one of the first women to attend Vassar College. Baker's Quaker Aunt Abby stimulated her intellectually and instilled in her the courage …showed first 150 words…
…showed last 150 words…the health committee of the League of Nations from 1922 to 1924, Baker was appointed consulting director in maternity and child hygiene of the U.S. Children's Bureau. After retirement she participated in more than 25 committees devoted to improving children's health care. She also served a term as president of the American Medical Women's Association. Baker died of cancer on February 22, 1945, in New York City. Her work laid the foundation for preventive health procedures that saved the lives of hundreds of thousands of babies, resulting in an improvement in mortality rates from one in six in 1907 to one in 20 by 1943. Further Reading Peavy, Linda, and Ursula Smith, Women Who Changed Things, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1983, p. 122.Morantz-Sanchez, Regina Markell, Sympathy and Science: Women Physicians in American Medicine, Oxford University Press, 1985.Morantz, Regina Markell, Cynthia Stodola Pomerleau, and Carol Fenichel, eds., In Her Own Words: Oral Histories of Women Physicians, Yale University Press, 1982, p. 30. |