Mary Helen Rutnam was a Canadian doctor, gynaecologist, suffragist, and pioneer of women's rights in Sri Lanka.
11 Facts About Mary Rutnam
1.
2.
Mary Rutnam became nationally recognised for her work in women's health and health education, birth control, prisoners' rights, and the temperance movement.
3.
Mary Rutnam attended school in Kincardine, and qualified as a doctor at the Women's Medical College at Trinity College, Toronto.
4.
From 1904, Mary Rutnam collaborated with a fellow Canadian doctor in establishing the Girls' Friendly Society and the Ceylon Women's Union, both intended to improve the health and social provisions for local women and girls.
5.
In 1922, Mary Rutnam was responsible for the introduction of the Girl Guide movement to Ceylon, and during the 1920s she took an ever-greater role in the suffrage campaign.
6.
From 1932, Mary Rutnam began to advocate greater promotion of family planning, worried by the undernourished babies she saw at the Ceylon Social Service League.
7.
Ceylon's Medical Council rejected her suggestion to include principles of family planning in Ceylon Medical School's curriculum, and five years later - in 1937 - Mary Rutnam opened her own family planning clinic in Colombo, the country's first.
8.
In 1944, Mary Rutnam was a co-founder of the All-Ceylon Women's Conference, which had taken over the work of the Ceylon Women's Society.
9.
Mary Rutnam wrote, lectured, and published extensively on the social and medical issues she cared about.
10.
In 1949, on her 76th birthday, Mary Rutnam was celebrated widely for her tireless work in social welfare.
11.
In 1993, Dr Kumari Jayawardena published a book about Mary Rutnam entitled A Canadian Pioneer for Women's Rights in Sri Lanka.