Women in White Coats: Examining the Impact of the First Female Physicians on the Medical Profession

Queen Esther: I knew - or assumed- that women had a difficult time reclaiming the right to practice medicine, but I had no idea the extremes the first women had to endure to achieve legitimate MDs status. I previously assumed males wanted to keep women out of the profession to keep the lucrative and status benefits to themselves, but it apparently went way beyond this. The prejudice and ridiculous assumptions about women - their smaller brains, their emotionality, their inability to concentrate were used to keep women out of the one place they certainly belonged: women's diseases and childbirth! Since women in general were reluctant to go to a male physician for these issues, the health of women deteriorated. Women themselves wanted and needed access to female doctors. And this is even true today as I can attest to. I have renewed appreciation for these original women who battled prejudice and ridicule and physical and emotional abuse to open the path for females - I should say re-open - because over the millions of years it was area where only women delivered babies etc. The resistance and persistence they showed in the face of extreme misogyny was amazing. They were true heroines.

United States on Oct 14, 2023

P. Gordon: … but too many minute details.!!!

The epilogue should have been the prologue so that the concise summary of women’s many contributions to medicine both in research, diagnostics, surgical and treatment were stated at the get go.

THEN say ‘.. and here is how they got there.’

I grew weary of the back and forth to USA, Edinburgh, Paris, London, Zurich etc.
If I grew weary, imagine what these strong women felt. But it became too much detail for the reader . Almost to the point I was going to give up.

I also got terribly confused by so many women mentioned —-Elizabeth, Lizzie, Emily, Sophia, etcetc

I needed one of those story boards to show who was related to who, who was friends/ lovers with who.
In the end I just gave up trying to keep anyone but the two Blackwell sisters straight.

*** interesting tidbit… on 2023 Jeopardy Masters Tournament, one of the clues was ‘last name of two sisters Elizabeth and Emily in recent book about women doctors’
I thought no one would guess but Andrew He answered correctly ‘Who are the Blackwells?’

Canada on Sep 04, 2023

Toots S.: Women fought for the right to be doctors. Women were thought to be not intelligent enough
or strong enough. These women paved the way for women to be seen as equal to men.
They faced hate even mud being thrown at them on the way to class. Today young women
do not realize why they can choose any career.

United States on Sep 01, 2023

Louise Cate: I was delighted to see how the 3 woman never gave up in trying to become doctors, even when it looked like they were facing terrible restrictions. However, I believe the author included too many details about people and things that added nothing important to the story. Instead of creating a beautiful garden of a story that could be remembered, she created a confusing story with too many weeds of information that she should have pulled out. It should be just the story of how the 3 amazing woman managed to achieve their personal goals to become doctors and in doing so made it possible for other woman to become doctors

United States on Mar 26, 2023

Amazon Customer: my wife enjoyed reading it

United Kingdom on Nov 22, 2022

Avonna: WOMEN IN WHITE COATS: How the First Women Doctors Changed the World of Medicine by Olivia Campbell is a historical biography which follows the lives of three Victorian women who fight to earn MDs from universities in the early 1800’s.

This book follows Elizabeth Blackwell MD, Elizabeth Garrett Anderson MD, and Sophia Jex-Blake MD as they fought for first their medical educations and degrees against male prejudice and then strived to improve the health of women and children. Their determination opened doors and led the way for more women to follow.

I liked this book, but I was hoping for more. The determination of any trailblazer must be applauded, and these women’s accomplishments are astonishing as each did it in her own way in a repressive time period. The medical descriptions of practices and procedures in the Victorian era covered in this book are fascinating and it is a wonder anyone lived with some of the treatments given, but there is so much detail that the narrative gets bogged down in places. Also, as the story continues, there are friends and acquaintances added which leads to my having difficulty keeping track of who was doing what and where they were...

United States on Jun 11, 2022

Vahe: This book is an excellent, information dense book. It has so much fascinating information about women's history as re the women's suffrage movement and medicine as an institution. It illustrates the very real fight for women to gain better educations that would both enable them to earn good wages. Women doctors would make moves that served to improve the lives of women in every social class. It also compares how women doctors were viewed and treated in America versus the UK which was quite different. The author pointed out many key figures in the history of establishing avenues for women to obtain MD's, gain experience and earn money as doctors. Many of them were quakers even though I also noted that none of the early female doctors mentioned were of this group. Women found it much easier to become doctors in the US, but were omitted from gentile society, whereas women doctors in the UK were welcomed in intellectual circles and high society. The early MD students received such abuses from the medical establishment in the UK that they gained a lot of sympathy from the general public. Politicians from the House of Commons supported their cause due to its popularity and it helped...

United States on Jan 23, 2022

T. Schopflocher: This book describes the barriers that women had to overcome, to be recognized as legitimate and competent physicians in a field that was dominated by men. It tells of the triumphs and the disappointments that women endured in their fight to be recognized as equals to men. In the end, they managed to prove that in some instances, they were better than men.

Canada on Aug 03, 2021