Dr. Charlotte Whitehead Ross (1843-1916)

Dr. Charlotte Ross was a unique individual. Most married women who work outside the home today think that they are the first generation of women who have added professional careers to the full-time job of being mothers and wives. They would be very interested to learn that Dr. Charlotte Ross managed to be a daughter, mother, physician, surgeon, and Sunday school teacher all at the same time, and that she did this one hundred and twenty six years ago. At a time when women were not allowed entry into medical school in Canada, she decided to make an application, with her husband's encouragement, after she had had given birth to her third child. Charlotte Whitehead Ross became Montreal's, and later Manitoba's, first woman doctor.

She was born in England in 1843, the daughter of Joseph Whitehead, a railway engineer, and was brought to Montreal, Canada at the age of five. At the age of eighteen she married David Ross, her father's associate in the railway construction business. Her interest in medicine grew when she took care of her elder sister, Mary Anne, who was chronically ill and eventually died of consumption. (1) In 1870 medical schools in Canada did not accept women students, so Charlotte attended the Women's Medical College in Philadelphia. It took her five years to obtain her degree. (2) She took two absences during her studies because of a miscarriage and the birth of a daughter. She graduated in 1875 and set up a successful practice in Montreal. She gave up the practice in Montreal in 1878 to join her husband and father who were building section 15 of the Canadian Pacific Railway, with headquarters in Whitemouth, Manitoba. (3)

Whitemouth was a railway town surrounded by lumber camps. She often found herself using her surgeon's skills amputating limbs, stitching wounds, and setting broken bones, for many of the accidents in the community were axe injuries to the feet and legs. Dr. Ross was indefatigable and very dedicated. There are many stories that attest to the fact that after delivering a woman of her baby she would then scrub the floor, do the washing, and cook enough food for several days. She did this so that the new mother would get at least a couple of days' rest. Although she was a pioneer doctor she was far ahead of some of her contemporaries in her practice of medicine. She was very strict about antiseptic methods and sterilization, and she convinced the Whitemouth community to be inoculated against smallpox at a time when even the citizens of large cities like Montreal were denied immunization.

Dr. Ross practised medicine for twenty-seven years without a licence. She applied for licences in both Montreal and Winnipeg, but she was denied both times. She finally did get her licence posthumously in November 1993 when Liberal MLA Sharon Carstairs introduced a resolution to that effect in the Manitoba Legislature. The now Senator Carstairs paid tribute to "this courageous and dedicated pioneer and other women like her, who have never been properly honoured for the part they played in building this country."(4) The Manitoba Legislature passed the resolution unanimously.

1. Edge, Fred. The Iron Rose; The extraordinary life of Charlotte Ross, M.D. Winnipeg, The University of Manitoba Press, 1992, p.4
2. Edge, Fred. The Iron Rose; The extraordinary life of Charlotte Ross, M.D. Winnipeg, The University of Manitoba Press, 1992 , p.112
3. Douglass, Ellen M. "A Pioneer woman Doctor of Western Canada - Dr. Charlotte Ross." University of Manitoba Medical Journal, v.18 no.1 (1946) p.14
4. University of Manitoba Press, November 8, 1993
   

Internet Links:

• Medicine: Charlotte Ross - HerStory: An Exhibition

Additional Reading

Angel, Barbara, and Michael Angel. Charlotte Whitehead Ross (Manitobans in Profile). Winnipeg: Peguis, 1982.

Currie, Muriel G. "A pioneer woman in Canadian Medicine." Nova Scotia Medical Bulletin v.33 (1954): 266-7.

Edge, Fred. The iron rose: the extraordinary life of Charlotte Ross, M.D. Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press, 1992.

Hacker, Carlotta. The indomitable lady doctors. Toronto: Clarke Irwin, 1974.

Douglass, Ellen M. "Dr. Charlotte Ross." Typewritten script of a radio talk given as part of University of Manitoba series entitled Famous Women, (Wednesday, January 3, 1940).

Douglass, Ellen M. "A Pioneer Woman Doctor of Western Canada-Dr. Charlotte Ross." University of Manitoba Medical Journal v.18 no.1 (1946).

McFarlane, C. Jean. "A Tribute to Dr. Charlotte Whitehead Ross." University of Manitoba Medical Journal v. 53 (1983): 11-12.

"The Renegade Dr. Ross: her medical credentials never recognized by Manitoba authorities during her lifetime, Dr. Charlotte Ross nevertheless became a popular prairie practitioner." Medical Post, v. 30 (November 8, 1994): 26.

Mitchell, Ross. "The early doctors of Manitoba." Canadian Medical Association Journal v.32, (1935): 92-93.

Mitchell, Rosslyn Brough. Medicine in Manitoba: the story of its beginnings. Winnipeg: Stovel-Advocate Press, c1954.

Todd, J.O. "Dr. Charlotte M. Ross; Manitoba’s pioneer medical woman." Manitoba Medical Bulletin v.77 (1928): 6-7.