Black Women Doctors: Dr. Jeanne Spurlock

Abstract

Physician, educator, and writer Dr. Jeanne Spurlock drew inspiration in her career from the challenges she faced in life as an African American woman. As a psychiatrist, she made significant contributions in focusing the medical community’s attention on the stresses of poverty, sexism, racism, and discrimination that effect women, minorities, gays, and lesbians. She was particularly concerned with addressing the unique challenges faced by single women, children of absent fathers, and African Americans experiencing what she called “survivor guilt,”—having ambivalent feelings about their own success.