Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1920-02-03
MORE WOMEN DOCTORS
NEEDED; CALL IS LOUD
/
Work Of Female Doctor Did Not
End With War, Says Promi-
ncnt Practitioner.

New York, Feb. president Of the
Medical Womens International Associa-
ton, first vicc-prcsident and head Of the
reconstruction work OF the Medical
Womens National Association, chairman
of the American Women's Hospitals,
author and lecturer, are few Of the jobs
to which Mrs. Esther Lovejoy, M. d., de-
votes her attention and to which she gives
of her mind, her effort and her experience
but most of all her heart. Out oil the West
came DR.. Lovcjoy when the war called
forth its women to do their best Port
land, Ore, knows her well, for she WIS
head of the City Health Department
there, and she retains the honor Of being
the first and only woman to hold that
position-she who ut l6 was ashopgirl.
According TO DR.. Lovejoy, there are
always women in the health department
oil every city, women who sometimes do
the biggest share of the work and receive
the least IN remuneration and glory.
When DIR. Love,oy entered the health
department at Portland she decided that
since she did most OF the important work
there was no reason why she should not
hold the most important position, and
she argued that If no woman had ever
attained this position before, IL was per
ficient political pull. DR.. Lovcjoy knew
she was capable Of holding the job, and
she got il. This is but slight testimony OF
her strong straightforward character.
The work of the An EN- an Womcn's
Hospital did not end with the war. a
larger scope of endcavor is just bursting
into bloom-the work Of reconstruction.
What the war has torn down they are
helping to rebuild. They are undertaking
the big work of cleaning pcstilence and
disease out OF the cities and small co'in-
tries of the Near East. They are spreading
the gospel of preventive medicine and
sanitation.
Through the work OF the women
physicians during the war and their
present work of reconstruction, their real
work is becoming more and more recog-
nizcd and their status uplifted in their
own profession Their masculine com
petitors are willing to give them their due
to work side by side with them, realiz-
ing what they are bringing TO the pro-
fession as whole.
Even now the call for women doctors
is so far In excess of the supply that
medicine is an almost open field for the
ambitious woman, said DIR. Ioveloy.
''The woman physician Is being called to
fill government positions OF trust. Large
corporations, employing hundreds OF
women, are learning that 1t Is to their
interest to take care of their employees,
and women doctors are being called 10 fill
these important roles. Everywhere now
the woman doctor Is In demand.
MANY girls starting out IN life hesitate
to take up medicine as profession. Per-
haps the hardships entailod will seem
L A.. - L.
physician is in the ascendant But the
long years of study required before one
can get the necessary degree (the shortest
possible time is seven years., the inferno
ship that must be served, the expense en-
tailed and the precariousncss of first
starting out in general PRACTICAL
these require woman of peculiar strength
and stick-to-it-iyeneS." DIR. Loveioy
concluded