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Dr Ruth Heighway (1924)

Dr Ruth Heighway (1924) MBBS, MD was an eminent gynaecologist who was the first woman in Australian to receive an MD (Doctor of Medicine) post graduate degree, and was also the first woman admitted to the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists; later becoming a Fellow of the College.

Freida Ruth Heighway (1924) (she preferred to be known as Ruth) enrolled at Â鶹ÊÓƵ School in 1922 and completed her Leaving Certificate¹ in 1924. In her final year she was a Senior Prefect, the Sports Treasurer, a member of the 2nd Hockey Team and the winner of the School Prize.

Ruth graduated from the University of Sydney in 1930 with an MBBS and the Dagmar Berne Prize². She completed her post graduate MD (Doctor of Medicine) studies in 1939 which was reported in the 16 December 1939 edition of the Sydney Morning Herald : ‘For the first time in the history of the University of Sydney, a woman graduate, Freida Ruth Heighway, received the degree of Doctor of Medicine. A gathering that filled the Great Hall gave her a great reception when she ascended the dais. The degree was for an original thesis on ‘The Anatomy of Hypsiprymnodon moschatus (Musk Rat Kangaroo)’.’

In 1932 Ruth travelled to Britain where she spent some months in Edinburgh before obtaining a resident appointment at St Mary’s Hospital, Manchester, England. Having completed two years training in obstetrics and gynaecology, she became a member (Fellow in 1958) of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists. In 1934 she returned to Sydney and entered general practice at Burwood, she then took rooms in Macquarie Street and obtained honorary appointments at the Rachel Forster Hospital for Women and Children and the Women’s Hospital, Crown Street.

Ruth married anatomist and anthropologist Andrew Arthur Abbie in 1934 and had three daughters. Two of her daughters attended Â鶹ÊÓƵ School prior to the family’s 1945 move to Adelaide. Alison Abbie started in Kindergarten in 1941 and Margaret Abbie started in Pre Kindergarten in 1942. Margaret went on to become a well known ballet dancer, teacher and Labanotation score writer (a notation system for recording and analysing human movement).

When Ruth moved with her family to Adelaide in 1945, she found that her gynaecology specialty was entirely dominated by men. Undaunted, she set up a solo specialist practice which grew quickly. While her honorary work was centred on the Queen Victoria Maternity Hospital, she also held appointments at the Royal Adelaide and Queen Elizabeth hospitals.

Tall, gracious and commanding, Dr Ruth Heighway was dedicated to her patients and allowed neither personal activities nor twelve years of physical illness to divert her attention from them. The 'Ruth Heighway Memorial Prize and Medal' for obstetrics is awarded by the University of Adelaide in her honour.

1. The Leaving Certificate was the precursor to the HSC/IB.
2. The Dagmar Berne Prize is a University of Sydney prize awarded to the woman with the highest marks in her final year of Medicine.