The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1880-06-25
Women as Doctors.

I think there is a great deal of ungen-
erous sentiment on the part of men, SO
much as to be astonishing and incompre-
hensible, considering the strong sense OF
superiority which exists III the male
bosom from the age of two upward. 1t
cannot be fear, of q new competitor, and
yet it looks like it, The doctors, most
liberal and highly cultivated profession,
have shown themselves in this particular
not more enlightened than the watch
makers, who have also resisted the en-
trance of women into their trade with
violence; though nobody can know better
than medical men how heavi y weighted
a woman is, how much more energy she
must require to carry her to actual sue
cess in profession, and how certain 1t IS,
accordingly that only a few exeeptionally
endowed individuals can ever enter into
those lists which are SO fiercely guarded.
But why not let convenience and general
utility be the rule here as in all other
matters? Every new piece of machinery
in the manufacturing districts has been
mobbed and wrecked at its first introduce
ton, just as the female students would
have been on one occasion had the gen
tlemen of the profession. had their way;
but the machine, if it is a good one,
always triumphs in the end. My own
opinion is that the advantage to women
of having woman doctor to refer to is
incalculable. To discuss the peculiar
ailments Of their mysterious frames with
a man is always trial and pain to the
young. Necessity hardens them as they
go on in life, and prejudice, and the idea
that woman cannot be properly educated,
or that by expressing a preference for a
female doctor they are exposing them
selves to be ridiculed as supporters of
woman's rights keeps many q woman
silent on the subject; but nature herself
surely may be allowed to bear testimony
on such point. [ can not imagine it to
be desirable in any way that woman
should get over their sense of personal
delicacy even with their doctor. But at
all events the question whether women
should be doctors or not is one, it might
be supposed, to be argued quite dispas-
sionately. They could not invade the
profession all at once in such numbers as
to swamp it, and as their opponents have
always Indignantly maintained their want
of capacity for its exercise, there could
not surely be doubt in their minds as
to the failure of the experiment and their
own eventual triumph. But here once
more the sentiment involved is a greater
injury than the fact. Not only were the
gates of knowledge barred, but the vilest
insinuations, utterly beyond possibility
of proof, were launched against the few
blameless women who did nothing worse
than ask the privilege of studying for an
enlightened profession. One or more
writer's, supposedly English gentlemen,
in very well-known and influential En-
glish paper, asserted boldly that the wo-
men students study medicine from pru-
RENT curiosity and the foulest of motives.
This was said in English print in full
daylight of the nineteenth century, and
nobody, so far is [ can remember, OBJ
jected to it. The journalist was not de-
nounced by his brethren, and public
opinion took it quite coolly, as thing it
was no shame to say.-MrS. Oti10ha1at,
In FTGSers Magazine.