Constance Stone

Emma Constance Stone (1856–1902) was an inspirational woman whose feminist ideologies stretched far beyond the confines of 19th-century thinking. She was Australia’s first female doctor (registering with the Medical Board of Victoria in 1890) and founder of the Queen Victoria Hospital and Victorian Medical Women’s Society. In her 47 years Constance Stone furthered the equality of women with her accomplishments, compassion and indominatable spirit.

The life of Constance Stone

Constance was born in Hobart, Tasmania, to Betsy and William Stone. In 1874, the family moved to Melbourne, Victoria – it was here that Constance met her future husband, Welsh émigré David Egryn Jones (they were married in 1893). David was working as a minister, but decided that he could better help people if became a doctor, a career path that was also a goal for Constance. 

Annette Bear-Crawford

In her early 20s (the mid-1870s), Constance decided to study medicine – a spirited decision considering there were no women medical practitioners in Australia at that time. She applied to the University of Melbourne’s Medical School, but was refused entry on the grounds of being a woman. (It wasn’t until 1891 that Australia’s first female medical students graduated from the University.) Undeterred, Constance decided to study overseas, travelling to America in 1884 to enrol in the Woman’s Medical College of Pennsylvania – the first of its kind in the world. She then went on to achieve a degree from the University of Trinity College, Toronto, Canada, and the Licentiate of the Society of Apothecaries in London.

During her time in London she worked at the New Hospital for Women and Children, which was staffed only by women. This was a major inspiration and no doubt provided the blueprint for the Queen Victoria Hospital that was to come.

Lilian Alexander

When Constance returned to Victoria, she registered with the Medical Board of Victoria in 1890 and was the first woman to do so. Such a milestone for women’s rights caused a huge media uproar and created much hostility and derision from the male medical community. But there was no going back. Constance’s registration was extremely significant, showing that women refused to be excluded from the medical fraternity any longer.

Constance’s life goal was to do ‘useful work’ and she was particularly interested in using her medical skills to help women and children. She started working at the free dispensary of Dr Singleton’s Collingwood Mission, treating women with low incomes. Her sister Clara – one of the first women graduates of the University of Melbourne’s Medical School – joined her and they were treating up to 90 female patients a day. Constance realised that there was a definite need for a dedicated women’s health service in the colony of Victoria.

Mary Page Stone

By 1895, 10 women doctors had graduated from the University of Melbourne. Constance contacted the graduates and they formed the Victorian Medical Women’s Society of which she was president. Its other members were Clara and Mary Page Stone; Lilian Alexander; Margaret Whyte; Elizabeth and Anne O’Hara; Grace Vale; and Helen Sexton.

It was from this group of headstrong women that the germ of an idea to create a hospital solely for women and children was formed.

In 1896, amid much media interest and speculation from the medical community, Constance and a group of other pioneering women doctors, founded the Queen Victoria Hospital, the first hospital in Victoria for women by women. Click here to read more about the founding of the hospital and its history.

In 1902 Constance died of tuberculosis.