LAUSR

The history of surgery is often being viewed as a steady progression marked by major breakthroughs (the introduction of anaesthesia, carbolic acid, electrocauterization, etc.), which are recognized as triumphs over longstanding impediments; they eventually resulted in improved operating conditions for patients and physicians. However, the history of neurological surgery also reveals impediments of a sociocultural nature being surmounted in the course of time. Historically, women were grossly underrepresented in the medical field—particularly in brain surgery—with female participation in the formal study and practice of medicine having once been negligible. In the first part of the twentieth century, this barrier was steadily overcome although neurosurgery was indeed one of the last medical disciplines in which female participation remained very circumscribed. Even a decade ago, fewer than 10% of practicing neurosurgeons in the USA and UK were women [5]. In the case of the career of Diana Beck, we encounter an individual who made significant contributions both to neurosurgery and the overall cause of women in medicine, rather than simply being content at being permitted to practice. Diana Jean Kinloch Beck (1902–1956) was born on 29 June 1902, in Chester, UK, the only daughter among the three children of James Beck, a master draper, and Margaret Helena Kinloch. Her parents were of Scottish descent. She was initially educated at the reputable Queen’s School in Chester, before subsequently choosing to pursue medicine at the London School of Medicine for Women, based at the Royal Free Hospital. Beck’s university education was a distinguished one, graduating M.B., B.S. in 1925, while also earning the Julia Cock scholarship, the Gwendoline Lynn prize, and the Grant medal in surgery. Her trajectory was very unusual since at the time of Diana Beck’s birth there were fewer than 500 female doctors in both England and Wales. It was not until 1875 that several British universities were permitted to grant medical licenses to female students, thereby enabling a small number of women to graduate and ultimately participate in clinical practice [6] (Fig. 1). Taking advantage of the relatively new historical opportunities, Beck progressed to the post of house-surgeon in * Frank W. Stahnisch [email protected]