85 II SOME PROFESSIONS OPEN TO WOMEN MRS. HENRY FAWCETT took the chair at this meeting of the Education Congress, and remarked that it was no part of her intention to pretend as chairman to be impartial on such a subject as Mrs. เ The Medical Education of Women in England and India.' 'I look upon the opening of the medical profession to women as one of the very greatest blessings which has marked the later part of this century, a blessing to women who in illness are able to call in the attendance of physicians and surgeons of their own sex; a blessing to women, to whom a noble and most useful profession has been opened. I am not impartial on this question either on public or on private grounds, for amid my rejoicing in this matter, I have a private source of satisfaction connected with it, in the fact that some of the earlier steps and some of the most important steps in opening this profession to women fell to the lot of my sister, Mrs. Anderson, to accomplish. She and Dr. Sophia Jex-Blake and Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell will, I think, always be looked upon as the pioneers in the movement for opening the medical profession in this country to women.' The chairman then called upon Mrs. Anderson to read her paper on Medical Training of Women in England I have been asked to explain the present state of things as regards the medical education of women in the United Kingdom. Mrs. Ander I will not detain you with any considerable son, M.D. amount of Ancient History.' Everyone here probably knows that thirty or thirty-five years ago it was not possible for women either to study medicine in anything but an amateur way, or to obtain admission to any of the Medical Examining Bodies in order to obtain a degree as a qualified practitioner. If a woman wished, say in 1863, to study medicine she was face to face with two difficulties-she could not get into a school, and even if she could the Examining Bodies would not let her present herself for examination. Gradually these two difficulties have been removed, and at this moment there are in Scotland, Ireland and England six Schools of Medicine, at which women can study with men, four other Medical Schools for women only, six Universities in which they can take the M.D. degree, in addition to the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Edinburgh and Glasgow, and of Dublin, and the Apothecaries' Hall, London. There is therefore now no more difficulty in the way of a woman taking a medical qualification than there is in the case of a man. For both there are difficulties, but they are intrinsic. The students have to acquaint themselves with a large amount of detailed knowledge on a variety of subjects, failure to pass an examination is always possible, but women and men stand on the same platform and have to go through the same course, pass the same examination, and receive the same degrees. It is happily not in Medicine, as it is in the study of Greek and Latin and Mathematics, that, though men and women are allowed to follow the same course and pass the same examinations, it is thought necessary to refuse to women the reward of work well done which is given to men. In medicine, the course of study, the examinations, and the degrees are all identical for men and women. It will perhaps make the conditions of medical education more intelligible to all present if I imagine a young woman with a turn for study and some ambition in the direction of making herself pecuniarily independent, going to her father and telling him that she wants to be a doctor. If he is a good father, he turns this request over in his mind, and thinks, first of all perhaps, whether his girl has shown signs of possessing the qualities that make for success in any line. Has she fairly good brains, and, what is of even greater importance, can she stick to things till they are done, or is she easily diverted from one thing to another, or is she too fond of amusement to make it likely that she will persist in a course of hard work for five, six, or seven years? Then in many cases he will think of the cost of such an education. Being a good father he has long ago realised that it is his duty either to leave his daughter enough money to live upon comfortably or to train her to earn an income for herself. Perhaps he knows that at his death 150l. a year, or not much more, is all that she will have. He thinks she will very likely marry, but he knows very well that a great many women do not marry, and he considers 150l. or 2001. a year is a very small sum for me to leave this nice girl of mine to live upon; but if I spend a little capital now, I can help her to earn 500l., 7007., or 1,000l. a year, and the money will be much better invested than by putting it into Consols.' So as a prudent man of business he begins to favour the idea. Then he asks himself how such a life will suit her health; he makes inquiries and he finds that women studying medicine have better health than average young women, and that if they are sensible in their mode of life, and if their parents arrange wisely and liberally for them, they become as a rule stronger and stronger each year, and that cases of breakdown from overwork are exceedingly rare among them. Satisfied on these points, he then wants to know what the course is, how long it will take, what has to be done, and how much it will cost? The answers to these questions can only be given when the father and daughter have decided one very important point, and that is, what degree or diploma she is to try to obtain. I am in the habit of saying to intending students or their friends who consult me at this stage, 'If you are going to Rome and wish to get your tickets through Cook, you must first of all make up your mind as to the route you intend to take. You must say if you mean to go by Paris, or by Bâle, Lucerne and Milan, or by steamer to Naples and thence to Rome.' So with studying medicine; you must decide upon your route as the very first step, because from the beginning the different routes vary. In every case an Arts Examination must be passed before registration as a medical student, but the range of this examination varies immensely with the different diploma-giving bodies, and the preparation for one Arts Examination would not necessarily be what would do for any one of the others. So the first practical step to be taken is to choose your route. What diploma are you intending to get? The range of choice, as I have already said, is considerable. In this diagram' I have placed the nine examining bodies, as nearly as may be possible, in the ascending order of difficulty, the Apothecaries' Hall being at one end of the scale, and the University of London at the other. ' Unfortunately not available for reproduction.-SUB-ED. The relative difficulty of the examinations which lead up to the nine medical diplomas open to women is, of course, only one point to be considered. The fees vary as much as the difficulty, and as a rule inversely to the difficulty, which is as it should be. Then there is the geographical consideration. Students in Ireland would almost certainly elect to go for the Irish colleges or for the University of Ireland; students in Scotland naturally go for the licence of the Scotch colleges, or for the M.D. degree of one of the Scotch universities. In London, students have the choice between the first and the last of the nine examining bodies, if they wish to be examined there. The Royal Colleges of Physicians and Surgeons are not yet open to them. If a student wants the M.D. degree, but is not prepared to attempt to obtain the London University degree, she must go to Durham or to one of the Scotch universities for part of her course, and for her examinations, or she can take the L.S.A. and then go abroad for an M.D. degree. Having decided which degree or diploma the student will try to get, and having passed the necessary Arts Examination, the next point is to decide where she will study. Shall she go to a mixed school, one in which men and women study together in whole or in part, or into one of the schools for women only? As in the case of choosing the examining body from which she hopes to obtain a degree, the student will be very much influenced in her choice of a school by questions of convenience and economy. A young woman in Aberdeen, for instance, will naturally go to the medical classes at the Aberdeen University and |