Women’s History Month: Recognizing contributions to dermatology by women (you may not have heard of!)

 

Women’s History Month: Recognizing contributions to dermatology by women (you may not have heard of!) 
By Randie Kim, MD

March is here again – that means daylight savings time, the start of spring, the annual American Academy of Dermatology meeting, and… Women’s History Month! This year’s Women’s History Month theme is “Women Who Advocate for Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion”. In honor of this year’s theme, here are some unsung heroines who have impacted our field.

Madam C.J. Walker was an African American entrepreneur, activist, and philanthropist who became the first American self-made female millionaire. Born in 1867 as Sarah Breedlove, she was orphaned at the age of 7 and became a domestic worker at 10 years old. She suffered from a number of scalp conditions, including seborrheic dermatitis and alopecia. After consulting with her brothers, all of whom were barbers, she began experimenting and developing her own hair care products. In 1907, Walker launched “Madam Walker’s Wonderful Hair Grower”, which contained precipitated sulfur, copper sulfate, petrolatum, bees wax, and coconut oil. Far ahead of her time, she marketed her products primarily to African-American communities, recognizing an unmet need to address alopecia in Black women1.

Alice Ball was an African American chemist who developed an injectable formulation of chaulmoogra oil for the treatment of leprosy. Before the development of sulfonamides in the 1940s, chaulmoogra oil was the only available treatment for leprosy. However, due to its viscosity and other side effects, topical, injectable, intravenous and oral routes of the oil were ineffective and poorly tolerated. Ball, who was the first female and first African American professor of chemistry at the University of Hawai’i, was able to extract the active components of chaulmoogra oil and modify them into water-soluble form. The “Ball’s method” led to a safe injectable treatment for leprosy with minimal side effects and was the standard treatment for leprosy for decades2, 3. Sadly, Ball died in 1916 at the age of 24 before she was able to publish her findings and she was not credited for her discovery until many years later.

The Radium Girls refer to thousands of young women employed to paint radioactive radium on watch faces so that the dials would luminesce in the dark. Radium therapy in the

1920s was used in dermatology for the treatment of skin cancers, keloids, warts, and lupus. However, dangerous side effects included ulcers and malignancy, particularly osteosarcomas and leukemias. Unfortunately, executives from the radium corporations concealed the side effects from these young women, some of whom were exposed to radium for years. Many suffered from jaw necrosis, ulcers, aplastic anemia, sarcomas, and sometimes death. A group of 5 brave women eventually sued their former employers and won, paving the way for improved safety standards in the workforce and workers’ compensation laws. Dial painters also contributed to advancements in nuclear and radiation medicine, occupational health, and environmental science4.

They say that skin is “a window into your health”. But skin can also be a mirror in society. As these women show, skin diseases can bring attention to under-represented, underserved, and vulnerable populations, reminding us that we, too, can be champions for all. 

 

 

References:

1. Claire Doyle, H03 Madam C.J. Walker and her wonderful hair grower, British Journal of Dermatology, Volume 188, Issue Supplement_4, June 2023, ljad113.285, https://doi.org/10.1093/bjd/ljad113.285

2. Ferry G. Alice Ball: chemist who developed a treatment for leprosy. Lancet. 2023 Sep 2;402(10404):767. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(23)01806-8. PMID: 37659772.

3. Mushtaq S, Wermager P. Alice Augusta Ball: The African-American chemist who pioneered the first viable treatment for Hansen's Disease. Clin Dermatol. 2023 Jan-Feb;41(1):147-158. doi: 10.1016/j.clindermatol.2022.11.001. Epub 2022 Nov 13. PMID: 36384187.

4. Cohen DE, Kim RH. The Legacy of the Radium Girls. JAMA Dermatol. 2017 Aug 1;153(8):801. doi: 10.1001/jamadermatol.2017.2576. PMID: 28793169.