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Estelle R. Ramey, 89, Who Used Medical Training to Rebut Sexism, Is Dead
Since it's a NYTimes link, I'll copy and paste what I consider the best part, for those of you who haven't got access to the site. (It's worth taking the time to sign up for the free version of site access in my opinion.)
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The controversy arose in April 1970, at a session of the Democratic Party’s Committee on National Priorities. Representative Patsy T. Mink of Hawaii had just urged the committee to make women’s rights a major issue. She was challenged by a committee member, Edgar F. Berman, a retired surgeon and a confidant of Hubert H. Humphrey, the former vice president.
“If you had an investment in a bank,” Dr. Berman said, “you wouldn’t want the president of your bank making a loan under these raging hormonal influences at that particular period.”
He continued: “Suppose we had a president in the White House, a menopausal woman president who had to make the decision of the Bay of Pigs?” (He meant the Cuban missile crisis.)
Reading Dr. Berman’s remarks, Professor Ramey was moved to action. She studied hormones for a living. She also had, as she would later say in interviews, “a very sharp tongue.”
In a letter published in The Washington Star, she wrote, “As an endocrinologist in good standing, I was startled to learn that ovarian hormones are toxic to brain cells.”
She went on to remind the public that during the Cuban missile crisis, the nation had a president who suffered from a severe hormonal imbalance: John F. Kennedy, who had Addison’s disease, an endocrine disorder.
Since it's a NYTimes link, I'll copy and paste what I consider the best part, for those of you who haven't got access to the site. (It's worth taking the time to sign up for the free version of site access in my opinion.)
****
The controversy arose in April 1970, at a session of the Democratic Party’s Committee on National Priorities. Representative Patsy T. Mink of Hawaii had just urged the committee to make women’s rights a major issue. She was challenged by a committee member, Edgar F. Berman, a retired surgeon and a confidant of Hubert H. Humphrey, the former vice president.
“If you had an investment in a bank,” Dr. Berman said, “you wouldn’t want the president of your bank making a loan under these raging hormonal influences at that particular period.”
He continued: “Suppose we had a president in the White House, a menopausal woman president who had to make the decision of the Bay of Pigs?” (He meant the Cuban missile crisis.)
Reading Dr. Berman’s remarks, Professor Ramey was moved to action. She studied hormones for a living. She also had, as she would later say in interviews, “a very sharp tongue.”
In a letter published in The Washington Star, she wrote, “As an endocrinologist in good standing, I was startled to learn that ovarian hormones are toxic to brain cells.”
She went on to remind the public that during the Cuban missile crisis, the nation had a president who suffered from a severe hormonal imbalance: John F. Kennedy, who had Addison’s disease, an endocrine disorder.
