Women in White Coats: How the First Women Doctors Changed the World of Medicine
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER!

For fans of
Hidden Figures and Radium Girls comes the remarkable story of three Victorian women who broke down barriers in the medical field to become the first women doctors, revolutionizing the way women receive health care.

In the early 1800s, women were dying in large numbers from treatable diseases because they avoided receiving medical care. Examinations performed by male doctors were often demeaning and even painful. In addition, women faced stigma from illness—a diagnosis could greatly limit their ability to find husbands, jobs or be received in polite society.

Motivated by personal loss and frustration over inadequate medical care, Elizabeth Blackwell, Elizabeth Garrett Anderson and Sophia Jex-Blake fought for a woman’s place in the male-dominated medical field. For the first time ever, Women in White Coats tells the complete history of these three pioneering women who, despite countless obstacles, earned medical degrees and paved the way for other women to do the same. Though very different in personality and circumstance, together these women built women-run hospitals and teaching colleges—creating for the first time medical care for women by women.

With gripping storytelling based on extensive research and access to archival documents, Women in White Coats tells the courageous history these women made by becoming doctors, detailing the boundaries they broke of gender and science to reshape how we receive medical care today.
1136901696
Women in White Coats: How the First Women Doctors Changed the World of Medicine
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER!

For fans of
Hidden Figures and Radium Girls comes the remarkable story of three Victorian women who broke down barriers in the medical field to become the first women doctors, revolutionizing the way women receive health care.

In the early 1800s, women were dying in large numbers from treatable diseases because they avoided receiving medical care. Examinations performed by male doctors were often demeaning and even painful. In addition, women faced stigma from illness—a diagnosis could greatly limit their ability to find husbands, jobs or be received in polite society.

Motivated by personal loss and frustration over inadequate medical care, Elizabeth Blackwell, Elizabeth Garrett Anderson and Sophia Jex-Blake fought for a woman’s place in the male-dominated medical field. For the first time ever, Women in White Coats tells the complete history of these three pioneering women who, despite countless obstacles, earned medical degrees and paved the way for other women to do the same. Though very different in personality and circumstance, together these women built women-run hospitals and teaching colleges—creating for the first time medical care for women by women.

With gripping storytelling based on extensive research and access to archival documents, Women in White Coats tells the courageous history these women made by becoming doctors, detailing the boundaries they broke of gender and science to reshape how we receive medical care today.
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Women in White Coats: How the First Women Doctors Changed the World of Medicine

Women in White Coats: How the First Women Doctors Changed the World of Medicine

Women in White Coats: How the First Women Doctors Changed the World of Medicine

Women in White Coats: How the First Women Doctors Changed the World of Medicine

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Overview

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER!

For fans of
Hidden Figures and Radium Girls comes the remarkable story of three Victorian women who broke down barriers in the medical field to become the first women doctors, revolutionizing the way women receive health care.

In the early 1800s, women were dying in large numbers from treatable diseases because they avoided receiving medical care. Examinations performed by male doctors were often demeaning and even painful. In addition, women faced stigma from illness—a diagnosis could greatly limit their ability to find husbands, jobs or be received in polite society.

Motivated by personal loss and frustration over inadequate medical care, Elizabeth Blackwell, Elizabeth Garrett Anderson and Sophia Jex-Blake fought for a woman’s place in the male-dominated medical field. For the first time ever, Women in White Coats tells the complete history of these three pioneering women who, despite countless obstacles, earned medical degrees and paved the way for other women to do the same. Though very different in personality and circumstance, together these women built women-run hospitals and teaching colleges—creating for the first time medical care for women by women.

With gripping storytelling based on extensive research and access to archival documents, Women in White Coats tells the courageous history these women made by becoming doctors, detailing the boundaries they broke of gender and science to reshape how we receive medical care today.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781799959472
Publisher: Park Row Books
Publication date: 03/02/2021
Product dimensions: 6.60(w) x 6.10(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Olivia Campbell is the New York Times bestselling author of Women in White Coats. An accomplished journalist and essayist, her work has appeared in The Atlantic, National Geographic, New York Magazine, HISTORY, and The Guardian, among others. She is an editor at Dotdash Meredith and a thesis advisor for Johns Hopkins University’s science writing program.

Table of Contents

Prologue: The Forgotten History of Healing 11

Chapter 1 A Lady Doctor 15

Chapter 2 Surely, She Is a Joke 23

Chapter 3 Another Elizabeth Blazes the Trail 46

Chapter 4 More Than a Nurse 63

Chapter 5 Young Sophia 82

Chapter 6 Sophia in America 93

Chapter 7 Facing Down Hurdles as America's First Woman Doctor 107

Chapter 8 Changing the Culture, One Patient at a Time 118

Chapter 9 Lizzie Is Pushed into Private Study 137

Chapter 10 The Blackwells Welcome Sophia in New York 151

Chapter 11 Lizzie Takes On London 163

Chapter 12 Sophia Storms Edinburgh 173

Chapter 13 Emily's Turn to Shine in New York 194

Chapter 14 A Lady Doctor Gets Married 203

Chapter 15 The Campaign in Edinburgh Ends 225

Chapter 16 Finding a Way Forward 248

Chapter 17 Societies and Controversies 255

Chapter 18 A Place All Their Own in London 265

Chapter 19 On to Separate Paths 291

Epilogue: A Lasting Legacy 301

Acknowledgments 305

Author Note 307

Select Bibliography 309

Notes on Sources 313

Reader's Guide 349

Index 359

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