Papers of Mary C. Howell, 1971-1983

Mary C. Howell, born September 2, 1932, is a pediatrician who has involved herself extensively in issues of alternative health care and improving the status of women as both patients and medical professionals. Graduated from Radcliffe College in 1954, Howell went on to earn her M.A. in Child Development in 1958, a Ph.D. in Child Development and an M.D. in 1962, all from the University of Minnesota. She served as an intern in the Department of Pediatrics there in 1963. The wide range of her research efforts and the positions she has held reflect the locus of her interests at the forefront of current social change: she has described her research and teaching interests as "the co-ordination of work and family responsibilities; relationships between families and other institutions; family and neighborhood context of primary health care; women and health care; changing sex-role expectations of men and women; the process and consequences of professionalization; home-based health care; [and] home care for dying persons." She has held a variety of teaching and administrative positions, including Associate Dean for Student Affairs at the Harvard Medical School (1972-1975), the first woman to attain that rank. While she has been both physician and administrator at a number of hospitals, she has concurrently involved herself in such efforts as planning and participating in the Maine Women's Health Center (1975-1976), and supervising the Street Youth Program of the Massachusetts General Hospital/ Massachusetts Department of Mental Health (1970-1973), providing comprehensive health care for runaways. The author of numerous books (including several written under the pseudonyms of Margaret A. Campbell and Anna Demeter), articles, and speeches, Howell is also an activist promoting healthful, full lives for both patients and medical professionals of both sexes.