More Than a Daughter

In a 2010 book chapter on the pioneering encephalographer Mary A.B. Brazier, PhD (1904–1995), a photo of a smiling woman is labeled “Margaret Lennox-Buchthal, wife of Fritz, daughter of William Lennox.” Yet, like most women, Margaret Lennox-Buchthal, MD (1913–2001), was more than a wife and a daughter. She was an assistant professor at the Yale School of Medicine and associate professor at the University of Copenhagen Institute of Neurophysiology, and she was editor-in-chief of the journal Epilepsia (1969–1975). Her work had a lasting impact on our current concept of and approach to febrile seizures. She advocated for people with epilepsy and challenged stigmas as an educated divorced woman with a diagnosis of epilepsy. The story of Lennox-Buchthal's life illustrates the unsung roles women played in medicine and research in the mid-1900s, and how their achievements continue to be eclipsed by the men in their lives.