S. JOSEPHINE BAKER (1873-1945) was a pioneering American public health physician and the first director of New York's Bureau of Child Hygiene. Her work with poor mothers and children in the immigrant communities of New York City had a dramatic impact on maternal and child mortality rates and became a model for cities across the country. On two occasions she helped to track down the infamous "Typhoid Mary," the cook who had spread the disease while working in several New York households. The first woman to earn a doctorate in public health from New York University-Bellevue Hospital Medical School, Baker wrote fifty journal articles and more than two hundred pieces for the popular press about issues in preventive medicine, as well as six books: Healthy Babies (1920), Healthy Mothers (1920), Healthy Children (1920), The Growing Child (1923), Child Hygiene (1925), and her autobiography, Fighting for Life (1939). HELEN EPSTEIN is an independent consultant and writer specializing in public health in developing countries, and an adjunct assistant professor at the Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs. She has advised numerous organizations, including the United States Agency for International Development, the World Bank, Human Rights Watch, and UNICEF. She writes frequently for various publications, including The New York Review of Books, The New York Times Magazine, and Granta, and is the author of The Invisible Cure: Why We Are Losing the Fight Against AIDS in Africa.
“The fact that [Baker] achieved so much professionally as a woman
in the medical field is made more impressive by the fact that in
1900, only 6% of physicians were women. . . . The public health
crusader was also a suffragette and a feminist who was with her
female life partner, the writer Ida Wylie, from 1920 until her
death in 1945. . . . At a time when New York City and the rest of
the world are dealing with another public health crisis, Dr.
Baker’s commitment to serving the most vulnerable among us is an
important reminder.” —Sarah Prager, them.
“Baker was the first director of a children’s public health agency,
and the first woman to get a doctorate in public health. She
tangled repeatedly with Typhoid Mary. More important, her ideas
saved thousands of lives and permanently changed the focus and
mission of public health. Her just-reissued 1939 autobiography
proves to be one of those magical books that reaches effortlessly
through time, as engaging and as thought-provoking as if it were
written now.” —The New York Times
“Dr. Baker shines not only for her contributions to public health
and social policy, but also for her work as a woman in government
administration, supervising a staff that included many male
physicians. Her work made her a leading figure in public health and
the New York City Bureau of Child Hygiene became a model for
similar programs in other cities, as well as for the United States
Children’s Bureau.” —U.S. National Library of Medicine
“Rather than spending her time swanning about town, Josephine Baker
became a pioneer, dedicating her life to the field of preventive
health care for children.” —Anthony Bourdain
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