Meet the first black woman
OB/GYN👩🏽‍⚕️🩺

Dr. Helen Octavia Dickens was Born February 21 in 1909!

Dr. Helen Octavia Dickens (1909-2001) was the first African-American woman to become an obstetrician-gynecologist (OBGYN) and a fellow of the American College of Surgeons.

She was also a leader in women’s healthcare and health equity.
Education and training
Born in Dayton, Ohio on February 21, 1909.

Dickens was not only the first African American woman faculty member in Obstetrics and Gynecology at Penn, but a vital leader in the community advocating for preventive health for women and teen girls of color.

She graduated from the University of Illinois College of Medicine in 1934, the only African-American woman in her class

Completed an obstetrics residency at Provident Hospital in Chicago from 1933 to 1935

Certified by the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology in 1945
Became a fellow of the American College of Surgeons in 1950

She also taught over 200 Black physicians how to perform Pap smears
Pioneered cervical cancer screening programs.

Dickens made her mark in cancer prevention and education in the late 1940s, in particular as a crusader for Pap smear testing. This was on top of her private practice and, in 1948, appointment as director of OB-GYN at the newly merged Mercy Douglass Hospital, where she created residency-training opportunities for Black physicians. Dickens lobbied doctors throughout Pennsylvania to offer the Pap test and taught 200 Black physicians how to perform it. Equally important, she addressed reluctance within the Black community for women to have pelvic exams and Pap smears due to fears of sterilization, a concern rooted in generations of mistrust in the medical profession from non-consensual experimentation on Black individuals.

In 1965, Dickens became the first African American woman faculty member in OB-GYN at Penn. She continued her advocacy for cancer education and made trailblazing contributions to family planning, addressing teen pregnancy and sexual health issues within Philadelphia’s Black community.

Performed free exams for Black women
Worked in difficult circumstances to help patients living in extreme poverty

Dickens paved the way for many who followed her, including young women who desire higher education and a career in a professional industry.