A tireless champion of women’s health
Pursuing a career in medicine at a time when women were not accepted in the field, Dr. Bagshaw entered Toronto Women’s Medical College in 1901 just 18 years after it opened. After a short period of practice in Toronto, Dr. Bagshaw went to Hamilton to substitute for a female doctor who was on vacation. Liking the city so much, she moved there and began her 70-year career as a family physician with a primary focus on obstetrics. In the 1930s, despite intense criticism from the medical and religious communities, Dr. Bagshaw became actively involved in Canada’s first and illegal birth control clinic. She served as the clinic’s medical director for over 30 years pioneering areas of family medicine that, while universal now, were not widely practiced.