Florence Stoney: Formidable Feminism in the History of Radiology

Background: Florence Ada Stoney is a pioneer of Radiology, but her successes often remain overlooked. She is credited as being the first female radiologist in the United Kingdom, but her life and work are not well documented compared with other pioneers of the time. Florence Stoney’s life and work are evidence of the struggles she faced due to her gender. She overcame many social constraints faced by women of the period, to train in medicine and contribute to the medical effort during World War I. Even today a gender gap in Radiology is evident. Each year fewer female students choose Radiology as their medical specialism, compared with their male peers. On the other hand, Radiography is a female dominated profession, with fewer male students studying and working in this field of healthcare.

Purpose:
- To celebrate the life of Florence Stoney.
- To consider Florence Stoney’s achievements, and their impact on Radiology.
- To explore the current position of medical/radiography education in the UK.

Summary of Content: This submission focusses on Florence’s life, education, and work, celebrating Florence’s achievements and her contribution to Radiology. This submission also explores the socio-economic and gender issues of the period, which created barriers for Florence to overcome, some of which continue to have an impact on medical education in the United Kingdom today.