Marie Thomas was the first Indonesian woman to become a physician. She received her diploma from the School of Training of Native Doctors in 1922. She went on to specialize in obstetrics and gynaecology and is considered the first Indonesian doctor to specialize in this field. She also established a midwifery school in Bukittinggi.
Biography
Marie Thomas was born on 17 February 1896 in Likupang, which is located in the region of Minahasa in North Sulawesi. Her parents were Adriaan Thomas and Nicolina Maramis. Her father had a career in the military, which required the family to constantly move to different locations in Indonesia. This, however, allowed Thomas to attend various schools from Sulawesi to Java. STOVIA did not initially accept women, but the policy changed due in part to the efforts of Aletta Jacobs. When Jacobs visited Indonesia in 1911, she pressed the issue with then Governor-General A.W.F. Idenburg. After women were allowed to enroll, a further hurdle existed where they could not be employed by Civil Medical Service and therefore had to pay for their studies at STOVIA. In this case, it was Aletta's sister, Charlotte Jacobs, who helped establish a foundation to raise funds for female students attending STOVIA. The foundation was established on 1 September 1912 with the help of Marie van Zeggelen and Elisabeth van Deventer. The foundation that they formed was the Society to Form a Study Fund for Training Female Native Doctors. Thomas entered STOVIA in September 1912 and was supported by the SOVIA foundation. At the time of her enrollment, Maria was the only female student among around 200 male students. It was not until two years later did the school accept a second female student by the name of Anna Warouw who was also from the region of Minahasa. Marie Thomas completed her studies at STOVIA in 1922 and was acknowledged as the first female graduate of STOVIA. She then started her medical practice at the main hospital in Batavia called Centrale Burgerlijke Ziekeninrichting . She would subsequently work inMedan, Manado, and back to Batavia at Budi Kemuliaan Hospital, a hospital established by the SOVIA foundation. Thomas at one point became an assistant to Nicolaas Boerma, a Dutch physician who specialized in obstetrics. She was one of the first doctors to deal with birth control and intrauterine devices. Thomas married Mohammad Joesoef who was also a physician on 16 March 1929. They subsequently moved to Padang in West Sumatra where Mohammad came from. In Padang, she took a position in the Public Health Service. They returned to Batavia after a few years in Padang. In Batavia, Thomas became involved with the Minahasa Unity party whose members included Sam Ratulangi. Thomas and her husband eventually returned to West Sumatra, this time settling in Fort de Kock. In 1950, she founded a midwifery school in Bukittinggi, which was the first in Sumatra and the second in Indonesia.
