| Abstract [eng] |
The first Lithuanian women were permitted to study in universities at the end of the 19th century, but their number increased, and their activities expanded more intensively only in interwar Lithuania, after the re-establishment of the University of Lithuania in Kaunas. My study objective was careers and educational pathways available to the first Lithuanian women physicians using Paulina Kalvaitytė-Karvelienė’s biography as a case study, which was investigated in the period of 1920—1940. My study objectives were to investigate the professional and educational pathways available for the first female physicians and evaluate Paulina Kalvaitytė-Karvelienė's role in the development of radiology in Lithuanian medicine of the interwar period. The objectives outlined to implement them were to examine the possibility for women to receive a medical education and practice medicine up to the late 19th century, establish the possibilities for women’s education and careers in medicine within the late 19th—early 20th centuries in the Russian Empire and Lithuania, assess the circumstances of Paulina Kalvaitytė-Karvelienė's pursuit of medical education and career choice in the context of female physicians in the Russian Empire and Lithuania and assess Paulina Kalvaitytė-Karvelienė’s contributions towards medicine within the framework of Lithuanian radiology through analysis of her scientific works. Source analysis, comparative and quantitative analysis were selected as research methods. The most important source was the first and main scientific periodical journal of the Lithuanian interwar period "Medicina" (1920—1940), dedicated to the theory and practice of medicine, and in which the country's researchers distributed their works. The research revealed that the first universities and medical programs for women in Europe and the Russian Empire were available only from the second half of the 19th century, as women had been denied access to universities since their inception in the 11th century. The aspiration of the first Lithuanian women to study higher education was most complicated by the concept of women's position in society and financial opportunities. Paulina Kalvaitytė-Karvelienė began to seek education at a mature age, prepared for the university as an external student, and after graduating, chose one of the rarest specialties at that time - radiology, which was not yet legalized in Lithuania at that time. Paulina Kalvaitytė-Karvelienė was the first female radiologist in interwar Lithuania, who published the most scientific works on the topic of radiology in the journal "Medicina" throughout its entire period of existence (1920–1940). The physician studied the properties of X-rays, applied and improved X-ray radiation therapy methodologies based on foreign innovations, adapted them to the capabilities of available X-ray equipment and the continually evolving science of radiology, thereby contributing to the development of radiology in Lithuania. |
