{{Short description|Swiss physician (1870–1928)}} {{Infobox person | name = Marguerite Champendal | image = Marguerite Champendal.png | caption = Photograph by Frédéric Boissonnas | birth_date = 2 June 1870 | birth_place = Petit-Saconnex, Geneva, Switzerland | death_date = {{death date and age|25 October 1928|2 June 1870}} | death_place = Geneva, Switzerland | occupation = Doctor | mother = Christine Elisabeth Roch | father = Jacques Henri Samuel Champendal }}
'''Marguerite Champendal''' (1870-1928) was a Swiss doctor and educator. She was the first woman from Geneva to obtain a doctorate in medicine at the University of Geneva (1900). Champendal founded a center for distributing pasteurized milk for infants there, as well as an acclaimed nursing school.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url=https://hls-dhs-dss.ch/articles/014711/2005-01-04/|title=Champendal, Marguerite|website=hls-dhs-dss.ch|language=fr|access-date=2020-03-18}}</ref>
== Biography == Champendal was born on 2 June 1870 in Petit-Saconnex, a neighborhood in Geneva, Switzerland. She was the third child of pastor Jacques Henri Samuel Champendal and Christine Elisabeth Roch.<ref name=":0" />
Champendal taught in Paris and Berlin, and then, against the will of her family, began medical studies in Geneva. In 1900 she became the first woman from that city to obtain a doctorate in medicine in 1900.<ref name=":3">{{Cite book|last=Ziegler|first=Erica Deuber|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sZcUAQAAIAAJ&q=Marguerite+Champendal|title=Les femmes dans la mémoire de Genève: du XVe au XXe siècle|date=2005|publisher=Éditions Suzanne Hurter|pages=140|language=fr}}</ref> (While 34 other women also obtained a doctorate at the same time, none were from the city of Geneva.) Her doctoral thesis was titled, ''Des varices congénitales'' (''Congenital varicose veins)''.<ref name=":3" />
In Geneva, she was a contemporary of Dr. Henriette Saloz-Joudra (1855–1928), who had earned her medical degree in 1883 at the University of Geneva and became the first woman to open her own private medical practice in the city.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.akademikerinnen.ch/fr/geneve/portrait/notre_histoire|title=Association Suisse des Femmes Diplômées des Universités - Genève / Portrait / Notre histoire|website=www.akademikerinnen.ch|access-date=2020-03-29|archive-date=2025-01-22|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250122034318/http://akademikerinnen.ch/fr/geneve/portrait/notre_histoire|url-status=dead}}</ref>
=== Medical practice === After graduation, she practiced in the popular districts of the city.<ref name=":0" />
Based on what she had seen during a previous visit to Paris, a project by Doctor Gaston Variot called ''the Drop of Milk'' (''La Goutte de Lait''),<ref name=":4">Simon, Elizabeth. (2010). The Evolution of a Nontraditional Nursing Curriculum in Switzerland. The Journal of nursing education. 49. 545-9. 10.3928/01484834-20100524-07.</ref> Champendal created her own center in Geneva (by the same name) in 1901. There she arranged for the distribution of pasteurized milk for infants and as well as consultation services to help young mothers.<ref name=":1" /> To further help the mothers, in 1916, she published the ''Little Manual for Mothers'' with guidance for women with babies.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" />
In 1905, having already spent one and a half years tending to women giving birth, she formed the school of nursing, Le Bon Secours.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web|url=http://www.akademikerinnen.ch/fr/geneve/portrait/notre_histoire|title=Association Suisse des Femmes Diplômées des Universités - Genève / Portrait / Notre histoire|website=www.akademikerinnen.ch|access-date=2020-03-18|archive-date=2025-01-22|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250122034318/http://akademikerinnen.ch/fr/geneve/portrait/notre_histoire|url-status=dead}}</ref> She directed the school until her early death in 1928. Champendal is remembered there as "a visionary and deeply modern woman."<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.geneve.ch/Fao/2005/20051128.asp|title=Official Fact Sheet 28.11.2005|last=Republic and Canton of Geneva|date=2005|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160309022110/http://www.geneve.ch/Fao/2005/20051128.asp|archive-date=March 9, 2016}}</ref><ref name=":2">{{Cite journal|last=Dreifuss|first=J. J.|date=1991|title=[The first women students of the medical faculty and their professional activities in Geneva]|journal=Gesnerus|volume=49 Pt 3-4|pages=429–438|doi=10.1163/22977953-0480304015|issn=0016-9161|pmid=1814787|doi-access=free}}</ref>
She was a private doctor at the medical school from 1913 to 1919.<ref name=":1" /><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.akademikerinnen.ch/fr/geneve/portrait/notre_histoire|title=Association Suisse des Femmes Diplômées des Universités - Genève / Portrait / Notre histoire|website=www.akademikerinnen.ch|access-date=2020-03-28|archive-date=2025-01-22|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250122034318/http://akademikerinnen.ch/fr/geneve/portrait/notre_histoire|url-status=dead}}</ref>
In 1918, Champendal earned professional status at the University of Geneva, the first woman to do so.<ref name=":2" />
=== Death === Dr. Champendal died on 25 October 1928 in Geneva at 58, from a cardiac arrest.<ref name=":4" />
== Honors == In Geneva, a street bears her name, Chemin Doctoresse Champendal.<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://ge.ch/noms-geographiques/voie/geneve/chemin-doctoresse-champendal|title=Chemin Doctoresse-CHAMPENDAL {{!}} Noms géographiques du canton de Genève|website=ge.ch|language=fr|access-date=2020-03-28|archive-date=2020-03-28|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200328192940/https://ge.ch/noms-geographiques/voie/geneve/chemin-doctoresse-champendal|url-status=dead}}</ref>
== References == {{Reflist}}
== External links ==
* The Fruits of Grace: https://books.google.com/books?id=WMuuDgAAQBAJ&dq=Marguerite+Champendal&pg=PA8
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Champendal, Marg}} Category:1870 births Category:1928 deaths Category:20th-century Swiss educators Category:Medical doctors from Geneva Category:Swiss women medical doctors Category:20th-century Swiss medical doctors Category:20th-century Swiss women educators Category:20th-century Swiss women medical doctors