Janet Irwin

Janet Rickord McCall Irwin (née Smith; 14 September 1923 – 20 March 2009) was a New Zealand medical practitioner who also worked in Australia. She specialised in student and women's health at the University of Canterbury and University of Queensland, and was an activist for women's health and broader social issues.

Early life Irwin was born in Rawene, New Zealand, on 14 September 1923. She had one brother, Jock, who died at the age of 10 in 1932. She had four half-siblings in Scotland from her father's first marriage to Barbara Grieve. In 1914, her father had left his first wife and children in Scotland and travelled to New Zealand with one of his patients Lucy Scott whom he married in 1921. One of her father's grandsons from that marriage is the law professor and writer, Alexander McCall Smith.

Career Irwin studied medicine at the University of Otago for almost five years but disappointed her father by getting married before completing her degree.

She worked at the Royal Hospital for Sick Children in Edinburgh after winning a scholarship to study psychological problems in young people. She was also the university’s first sexual harassment conciliator. She was awarded a Centenary Medal in 2001. McCall Smith’s role at the wedding was fulfilled by Douglas Robb.

A biography of Irwin A Prescription for Action: The Life of Dr Janet Irwin was published in 2016.

Publications

Furnival CM, Irwin JR, Gray GM. (1983) ‘Breast disease in young women. When is biopsy indicated?’ Medical Journal of Australia. Vol. 2, no. 4 p. 167–9. doi: 10.5694/j.1326-5377.1983.tb122396.x. PMID 6877161. Irwin, J, De Vries S, Wilson, SS, & Sparling, J. (1998). Raising girls: The pleasures, the perils, the pitfalls. Brisbane, Qld.: Pandanus Press.