European women in neurosurgery: I – A chronology of trailblazers

Abstract

Neurosurgery as a distinct speciality has been around for 100 years. Some of the earliest women neurosurgeons were European, emerging from the 1920 0 s onwards. Here we detail the rise of women in neurosurgery across Europe with a decade by decade account of big events and firsts across the continent. The emerging themes are seen in stories of pioneers with enormous resilience, camaraderie, trailblazing and triumphing in a system with great obstacles and challenges. Our journey through this chronology brings us to the modern day, where most European countries have or have had a woman neurosurgeon and the future for women in neurosurgery in the continent is very bright.

Women Neurosurgeons Worldwide: Characterizing the Global Female Neurosurgical Workforce

“…Neurosurgical workforce data were obtained for 210 nations through 42 included sources ( Supplemental Digital Content 2, Supplemental Table 1 , http://links.lww.com/NEU/E46). 1,17,18,22-61 A world map denoting total neurosurgeons per capita is shown in Figure 1. The color scale denotes countries in green if they have at least 1 neurosurgeon per 200 000 population as this has been described as the minimum requirement for essential neurosurgical workforce to address neurotrauma in low- and middle-income countries.…”

Judith Balkányi-Lepintre (1912–1982): first woman neurosurgeon, first woman war neurosurgeon, and first woman pediatric neurosurgeon in France

“…6 In that paper, the authors listed Alice Rosenstein from Breslau, Germany, who completed her training under Otfrid Foerster in 1929; Serafima Bryusova from Moscow, Russia, who trained with Nikolay Burdenko in the 1920s and 1930s at the then recently established Burdenko Institute; Diana Beck, who in 1939 took an apprenticeship with Sir Hugh Cairns in Oxford, United Kingdom, and whose first appointment as consultant was delayed by the war until she could take a post as consultant neurosurgeon at the Middlesex Hospital in London in 1947; 13 and Sofia Ionescu from Romania who graduated as a neurosurgeon in 1954. 14 In another equally recent paper by authors from "a global working group of women involved in neurosurgery in different countries," 1 Judith was briefly mentioned as follows:…”

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Recently, there has been an interest in unearthing and exploring the missing historical figures among pioneering women in the neurosurgical field, and many papers have been dedicated to this issue. [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8] Unfortunately, one major figure has remained unrecognized: Judith Balkányi-Lepintre, a Hungarian-French neurosurgeon, who was not only the first woman neurosurgeon in France but also the first woman war neurosurgeon for the French Army and eventually the first woman pediatric neurosurgeon in France. This vignette provides an account of her neurosurgical career.

Judith's TrajectoryJudith Balkányi (Fig.

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