A Woman's Quest: The life of Marie E. Zakrzewska, M.D.Zakrzewska, Marie E. (Marie Elizabeth)
History
A Woman's Quest: The life of Marie E. Zakrzewska, M.D.
Zakrzewska, Marie E. (Marie Elizabeth)
Women physicians -- United States -- Biography; Zakrzewska, Marie E. (Marie Elizabeth), 1829-1902
The students here pay £80 for the theoretical instruction and £40
for the hospital instruction, besides paying for their board outside
of school and hospital, for they do not reside in either. Our
institutions in the United States would not permit such a rate, nor do
I wish to suggest it, but I wish that the friends of the movement for
the medical education of women would come forward, as have those here
in England, and provide us with means so that we can afford to pay an
ample salary to our physicians, or at least to our resident physician,
and thus secure her services for some years to come for the benefit of
all concerned.
The English generosity in this respect seems marvelous to me. For
instance, the Royal Free Hospital would not connect the medical school
for women with its work, saying that it had not room for them. The
governors of the hospital were asked how much money was needed, and
the enormous sum of £5,000 was set for a limited number of years,
namely, five. At the expiration of this time, a similar sum, or even
more, or perhaps nothing at all, might be needed. In a very short time
the sum was raised, the money being used to build another wing to give
room to the women for study.
Out of the funds of the school, towards which the student contributes
£40 for three years’ study, a large sum is paid to the physician who
gives the instruction in this hospital. The funds of the school are
raised by private subscription, and the fees charged to the students,
although high, do not suffice to pay for the instruction given. In so
far as the fees do not suffice, the situation is similar to that in
our American colleges and schools; it differs in that the instructors
are fully paid for the time and knowledge given to the students.
The result is a higher education in medicine and a higher grade of
individual physician than in the United States.
In the two branches, surgery and the medical treatment of general
diseases, the woman student has now in London ample opportunity.
Plenty of material is provided, not only by the Royal Free Hospital
but also by the New Hospital for Women, as well as by the dispensary
attached to the latter. The latter hospital is carried on precisely
as is our New England Hospital for Women and Children except that it
has no maternity department. It admits patients for as little as four
shillings a week but only a few are entirely free.
The attending physicians are all married women of high social
position, mothers and housekeepers and quite rich. It is thought by
the English women that these prominent women should work in order to
live down the prejudice, which seems to be very strong, that if women
study or do anything they will cease to be willing to become mothers
and housekeepers. This explained why in the medical school the “Mrs.”
was always introduced to me before the “Miss” was spoken of.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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