Emily Winifred Dickson (13 July 1866 – 19 January 1944) was an Irish medical doctor who was the first female fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland.

[9] Dickson was the second youngest of seven children; three boys (James, John McGeagh, Thomas) and four girls (Sarah Louise, Mary, Emily, and Edith).

However, in Berlin she faced significant resistance about her gender, with one professor claiming she had cheated to get her position on his course and that Winifred was a man's name.

[10] In 1894 Dickson opened her practice in her father's Dublin residence while he was MP for a constituency there until he left the city.

[2][4][5][6][14] Although she was described by some colleagues as the best gynaecologist in Dublin,[2][13] many of the students disliked the idea of a woman examining them on midwifery and a petition, 14 pages of signatures long, was unsuccessfully presented to the Council of Royal College of Surgeons.

While in Vienna, Dickson wrote to the British Medical Journal on the importance of women doctors in the workhouses.

Her correspondence with the British Medical Association was to ensure women had access to membership and as soon as they did, in 1892, she became a member.

[2][4][5][20][21] Dickson and her husband separated, and ongoing medical health issues prevented her from remaining in one location.

[5][21][22] Dickson's daughter Elizabeth was educated in Oxford, where she met and married fellow student Kenneth Clark, a historian and writer best known for the BBC Television series Civilisation.

She was working in Rainhill and living with her son, Colin, in Lancashire, when she died of cancer aged 77.