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    MEDICINE AS A PROFESSION FOR WOMEN, 153

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    -«A» » F In Or Inviting Women, Consider ...

    avoidable of banishing women froni medicine altogether , or _giving tlieni the education and standing of the physician . The broad field

    of general medical science underlies all specialities , and an acquaintance with it is indispensable for the successful pursuit of every

    department . If the popular instinct which called women so widely to this sort of . work represent a real need , it can only be met now

    by a class of women whose education shall correspond to the wider requir Moreover ements experience of our present very medical soon shows science that . it is not these special

    branches of , practice that will chiefly call for the attention of women in medicine . The same reason which especially qualifies women to

    be the teachers of women , in sanitary and physiological knowledge , viz ., that they can better apply it to the needs of women ' s life _, holds

    good in regard to their action as physicians . So much of medical practice grows out of every-day conditions and intereststhat women

    , who are thoroughly conversant with women's lives will , if they have the character and knowledge requisite for the position , be as much

    better qualified in many cases to counsel women , as men would be in similar circumstances to counsel men . At present , when women

    need medical aid or advice , they have at once to go out of their own worldas it werethe whole atmosphere of professional life is so

    entirel , y foreign to ; that in which they live that there is a gap between them and the hysician whom they consultw _^ hich can only be filled

    Medicine up by making is so p the broad profession a field no so closel longer an interwoven exclusivel , with y masculine general one in- . y

    terests , dealing as it does with , all ages , sexes , and classes , and yet of so personal a character in its individual aj > plications , that it must

    be regarded as one of those great departments of work in which the co-operation of men and women is needed to fulfil all its

    requirements . It is not only by what women will do themselves in medifession cine , but , that also they by will the influence lead it to which supply they tae needs will exert of women on the as pro it

    cannot otherwise . Our own experience has fully proved to us the correctness of this

    view . We find the practice , both public and private , which comes naturallto us is bno means confined to any special departments ,

    and where y patients y have sufficient confidence in us to consult us for one thing , they are very apt to apply in all cases where medical aid

    is needed . The details of our medical work during the number of years that we have been connected with the profession cannot bo

    given to the public , but they have fully satisfied us that there will be the same varietin the practice of women as exists in that of

    men ; that individual y character and qualification will determine the position in practice , rather than pre-conceived ideas with regard to

    tlie position ; and that tliere is no department in which women , physicians may not render valuable services to women .

    suits It i s or often women objec that ted to tMs is too idea much of professional out of keep and in scientific g with th pur eir

    f

    Medicine As A Profession For Women, 153

    MEDICINE AS A PROFESSION FOR WOMEN , 153

• Citation
  • English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), May 1, 1860, page 153, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01051860/page/9/