Women -- Employment -- United States; Women -- Social and moral questions
Pennsylvania was not the first State to admit women to medical
societies. It has been mentioned that the American Association, at its
Centennial year meeting, received Dr. Sarah Stevenson from the Illinois
State Medical Society. But, earlier than this, women had been received
in New York State and city. The very first occasion was 1869, when the
Drs. Blackwell were accepted as members of a voluntary “Medical Library
and Journal Association,” which held monthly meetings for hearing papers
on medical subjects read by its members.[107] In 1872, a paper was read
before this society by a young lady who had just returned from France
with a medical diploma, the first ever granted to an American woman from
the Paris _École de Médecine_.[108] In 1873, Dr. Putnam was admitted
without discussion to the Medical Society of New York county, at the
suggestion of Dr. Jacobi the president, whom she married a few months
later. In 1874 she was sent as a delegate from the County Society to the
State Medical Society, at its annual meeting at Albany. She also became
a member of the Pathological, Neurological and Therapeutical societies,
but was excluded from the Obstetrical Society by means of blackballs,
although her paper as candidate was accepted by the committee on
membership, and she received a majority vote. Finally, and a few years
later, she was elected, though by the close majority of one, to
membership in the New York Academy of Medicine.
The facile admission of Dr. Putnam to these various privileges, in New
York, at a time that the propriety of female “recognition” was still
being so hotly disputed in other cities, was due partly to the
previously acquired honor of the Paris diploma;[109] partly to the
influence of Dr. Jacobi. This physician may be said to have accomplished
for women in New York what was done in Philadelphia by Drs. Hartshorne,
Atlee, Stillé, and Thomas; in Boston by Drs. Bowditch, Cabot, Putnam,
and Chadwick; in Chicago by Dr. Byford. The door was opened, other women
entered without difficulty. The County Medical Society was expected to
register all regular and reputable practitioners in the city, and at the
present date contains the names of 48 regular physicians.
Four other women became members of the Pathological Society,[110] two of
the Neurological Society,[111] one of the Neurological Association,[112]
and two of the Academy of Medicine.[113] No new application has been
made to the Obstetrical Society, a private club. But the obstetrical
section of the Academy contains one female member.[114]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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