'Send Us a Lady Physician': Women Doctors in America, 1835-1920

Abstract

The year Henry Ford began work on his first car, Johns Hopkins established a medical school, and its chief, Dr William Osler, opened the door to women, promising innovative applications to medical education. Ruth J. Abram, editor of 'Send Us a Lady Physician': Women Doctors in America, 1835-1920 , implies Sir William's offer was precipitated by the half million dollars contributed to Johns Hopkins by women physicians, led by the president of Bryn Mawr, M. Carey Thomas. A scant ten years before, two eminent women physicians, Drs Marie Zabrezewsda and Elizabeth Blackwell, had somehow managed to scrape up $50 000 and offered it to Harvard, with the proviso that women be admitted to its medical school. Harvard refused and did not change its mind until 1946. Citing examples such as these, Abram traces the history of women in American medicine: their valiant struggle against the barrier of prejudice and the difficulties