To the Ends of the Earth

In this book Thomas Bonner unveils the dramatic story of women's long struggle to become physicians. Focusing both on international comparisons and on the personal histories of many of the pioneers, their determination and dedication, their setbacks and successes, he shows how European and American women gradually broke through the wall of resistance to women in medicine. In pre-Civil War America, in Tsarist Russia, in Victorian England, special schools of medicine for women were widely established as early as 1850 as a kind of way-station on the road to medical coeducation. Only in Switzerland and France, at first, could women study medicine in classes with men. As a result, hundreds and then thousands of women from Russia, Eastern Europe, England, and the United States enrolled in Swiss or Parisian universities to gain the first-class education that was denied them at home. In all, Bonner shows, at least 10,000 women left their homelands to study medicine in foreign countries before 1914. Coming almost literally from "the ends of the earth", they formed the largest migration of professional women in history. Obstacles loomed large in the paths of these women. Forced to leave their homes, families, and native languages behind, they encountered lingering opposition in even the most progresive countries. Though they gradually gained a measure of acceptance as regular students, in the European schools women were often required to sit behind a curtain at lectures on subjects such as anatomy and gynecology - topics considered too delicate to discuss in their presence. The propriety of women's medical education and the femininity of the women in question were hotly debated in the international press. Even those who managed to graduate faced obstacles to internships, jobs, and training in medical specialties. Based on medical school records, student diaries, and European archives, and written from a comparative viewpoint that has been missing in earlier studies, this book aims to be a comprehensive history of women's medical education in the formative years from 1850 to 1914. In telling the story of female exclusion and creeping progress at the personal, national and international levels. Bonner offers a perspective on 20th century women's achievements in medicine throughout the Western world.