Estelle Ramey
| Estelle R. Ramey, Ph.D. | |
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| Born |
Estelle Rosemary Ramey August 27, 1917 Detroit, Michigan, United States |
| Died | September 8, 2006 (aged 89) Bethesda, Maryland, United States |
| Other names | Stella Rubin, Stella Ramey |
| Occupation | Endocrinologist and educator |
Estelle Rosemary Ramey (August 23, 1917 – September 8, 2006) was an American endocrinologist, physiologist and feminist who became internationally known for refuting surgeon and Democratic Party leader Edgar Berman, who stated that women were unfit to hold high public office because of "raging hormonal imbalances." Ramey's balanced approach to life was embodied in a later quote, "I have loved. And been loved. And all the rest is background music.”
Born Stella Rosemary Rubin in Detroit, Michigan to Jewish immigrant parents, Ramey grew up in Brooklyn, New York after moving with her family as an infant. She was named by her mother as a "star." A French immigrant, her mother had a third-grade education and was illiterate. Throughout her childhood, Ramey's mother encouraged her and her siblings to pursue education. In grade school, a teacher insisted that she formalize her name as Estelle in order to register. Ramey's father died when she was a teenager.
Ramey graduated high school at 15 and earned a bachelor's degree in mathematics and biology from Brooklyn College at 19. In the midst of the Great Depression, she earned a $750-a-year teaching fellowship at Queens College in New York and later obtained her master's degree in physical chemistry from Columbia University in 1940. In 1950, she received a doctorate in physiology from the University of Chicago. Throughout her lifetime, Ramey was awarded 14 honorary degrees. She was the first woman faculty member at the University of Chicago Medical School.
In 1941, Ramey applied for a job at the University of Tennessee Department of Chemistry, but was refused after being told she "ought to go home and take care of my husband." After the United States entered World War II just a few months later, the department chairman offered Ramey a position teaching thermodynamics and biochemistry to military cadets.
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