[First women with physician's diploma on the Russian and Austrian occupation areas]

The first Polish women physicians started their work in Warsaw by the end of the 19th century. In view of the fact that no women were admitted to universities on the area of both occupying countries, they were graduates of Swiss universities. They often waited for the official recognition of their diplomas in the Russian colleges for a few years. In 1900 on the Polish area under the Austrian occupation women were given an access to the medical faculties at the Universities of Cracow and Lvov. Still, at that time the majority of doctors completed their studies abroad. Until the World War I the number of professionally active women physicians ranged from a few to a dozen in Warsaw, Cracow and Lvov. They had speciality mainly in gynecology and obstetrics as well as pediatrics. They frequently came from urban intelligentsia without much wealth, and were commonly the descendants of land owners. Nearly all of the women physicians at that time dealt with social work and participated in intellectual life of their cities.