Sarolta Steinberger, the First Female Graduate Doctor in Budapest

Abstract

Sarolta Steinberger (1875–1966) obstetrician-gynecologist, first female graduate of Budapest University. She was born on September 12, 1875, in Tiszaújlak, the seventh child of a well-off Jewish family. She graduated from high school privately and graduated from the Reformed College in Cluj-Napoca.

József Ferenc’s “supreme decision” dated November 18, 1895, and his royal note, held by Gyula Wlassics, Minister of Religion and Public Education, on December 19, 1895, allowed women to be admitted to the medical, liberal arts and pharmacy courses of the universities. The decree also opened the way to Sarolta Steinberger, who was inaugurated on November 3, 1900 as the first female Hungarian doctor to graduate in Pest. She then went on to study obstetrics and gynecology abroad, but she worked as a balneologist too at the Visk Spa, located in the central part of Transcarpathia. In 1902, she published an article in the Medical Weekly: The History of the Medical Woman. After returning home, she began working as a doctor at the Tauffer Clinic, named after its founder, Vilmos Tauffer. The clinic began operating in 1881, and was later expanded in 1898 with another wing. T hen, in 1928, she was appointed chief medical officer of the National Institute of Social Security (OTI). She held this position until 1944. She retired to her home in Pesthidegkút from 1944 until his death on November 24, 1966.

She was an excellent doctor, but she had to constantly fight against the manifested discrimination in different form, as a woman, as a Jew, as an unmarried, "old maid", that took place throughout her life.

Photo: Radnóti Zoltán: A legújabbkori Sára élete – Az életet adó – (Életmesék XV.)