Bucking the System: Women in the Health
Sciences at the University of Iowa, 1874 - 1950

Nutrition Department

Doctors in the Nutrition Department

Kate Daum was born in Great Bend, Kansas in 1892. She received her B.A. and M.A. degrees in home economics from the University of Kansas in 1913 and 1916 respectively. In 1926 she received a PhD degree from the University of Chicago. When Daum came to Iowa in 1925 as a research assistant and instructor in the Department of Internal Medicine, she already had wide teaching and administrative experience. She was appointed Director of the Nutrition Department the following year. The completion of the general hospital in 1928 provided an immediate boost to the Nutrition Department which was given its own research laboratory. This was most beneficial to the interns whose studies focused primarily of child nutrition and diabetic metabolism. Daum conducted research in female nutrition and in 1934 published a path-breaking paper on iron metabolism in women.

55. Dr. Kate Daum Professor of Nutrition Director of Nutrition Department 1926 Courtesy of the Food and Nutrition Department, UIHC

56. Internal Medicine Department Faculty with Dr. Kate Daum 1935 Courtesy of the University of Iowa Internal Medicine

In the late 1920s and early 1930s, Kate Daum's graduate program was one of the few in the nation conforming to the requirements for student dietitians recommended in 1927 by the American Dietetics Association (ADA). She required that her students maintain at least a "B" average and pass written and oral examinations in their major areas.

There was a monastic quality to the life of a nutrition intern, a regimen reinforced by long hours of work. Segregated in Westlawn (the nurse's dormitory located a half mile from the main campus), interns were isolated from much of campus life. Graduates of the nutrition remained in a community made up largely of single women. This reflected two situations: the widely held program that hospital nutrition was women's work; and the practical problem of combining marriage and family with a career in hospital nutrition. In 1931 Kate Daum responded to an inquiry from a widowed mother who wondered whether hospital nutrition would be "a wise choice" for a career: "Anyone engaged in food work," Daum noted, "is more tied down than any other person." From 1921 to 1956, in fact, only one of the department's four chief administrative dietitians was married, just eight of the seventeen chief therapeutic dietitians were married, and in several cases marriage plans prompted staff resignations.

Although the Nutrition Department suffered great budget and staff cuts during the Depression, the research program did not experience a major setback. Medical research was not the high-cost, high-priority enterprise which it is today. Fortunately, the Nutrition Department received several grants from industry and private foundations. Significant support from the Quaker Oats Company, which provided a $2000 annual grant for research in calcium metabolism. Daum's research in nutrition included both physiological and biochemical studies. She also conducted many breakfast studies, investigating the relationship between various diets (for example, a breakfast of cereal versus one of bacon and eggs) and a person's performance level in school or at work.

57. Dr. Daum Teaching Senior Medical Students 1937 Courtesy of the Food and Nutrition Department, UIHC

Kate Daum struggled with cancer in the last year of her life. She continued to direct the Nutrition Department from her hospital bed as long as she was physically able.

Just after Daum's death in 1955, the Journal of the American Dietetic Association paid tribute to her unique qualities:

Dr. Daum had a very personal interest in each student and staff member. She knew and remembered the husbands and new babies as well as the new positions and professional progress....As an individual, she was generous and hospitable; her home was the scene of many wedding receptions, Christmas parties, and innumerable small gatherings....she went horseback riding....she swam before breakfast and played golf in the late afternoon....For the American Dietetic Association [she served as president from 1932 to 1933] and the profession, too, there is no measure for the loss of a distinguished member and a loyal friend.

58. Ruth Wheeler, Nutrition Department 1924 Courtest of the Food and Nutrition Department, UIHC

When Ruth Wheeler came to Iowa in 1921 to take charge of the new Nutrition Department, she was already a well known figure in the world of nutrition. Born in 1877, Wheeler graduated from Vassar College in 1899, taught for several years, then studied physiological chemistry and nutrition at Yale, where she received her PhD in 1913. During the five years of Dr. Wheeler's tenure at Iowa as Professor of Nutrition in the College of Medicine, she fought not only to establish an important role in the University for the new Nutrition Department, but to change the views of her male colleagues on campus, who had little regard for what was traditionally considered a 'female' profession. From the outset, her requests for even the basics--space, equipment, and support personnel--sparked bitter bureaucratic squabbles between the College of Medicine, the Hospital , and other University divisions. There were continual battles over money, space, academic status,and legitimizing her department's research function.

In 1923 Dr. Wheeler finally reached her goal of a seven-member supervisory staff. They ordered, planned, and supervised the preparation of food for some 3600 meals daily. Her staff also shouldered most of the department's teaching responsibilities which included instructing nutrition interns, nurses, home economics students, and junior medical students. However, they were still barred from participation on examination committees for the master's degree because the staff lacked academic status. Another struggle, this time between Wheeler and the hospital superintendent, won "complete maintenance" (room and board) at hospital expense for nutrition interns.

In 1926 Dr. Wheeler accepted a position as Professor of Physiology and Nutrition at her alma mater, Vassar College. There she was offered a lighter work load at a higher salary.

59. Ruth Wheeler with Nutrition Master's Degree Graduates
Class of 1924
Courtesy of the Food and Nutrition Deaprtment, UIHC