Women In White Coats

 Olivia Campbell wrote Women In White Coats: How The First Women Doctors Changed The World. This is an historical account about Elizabeth Blackwell, Elizabeth Garrett Anderson and Sophia Jex-Blake. In 1849 Elizabeth Blackwell became the first woman doctor. She met incredible resistance from the male doctors who did not women to join their profession. All three of these women were incredibly persistent. Elizabeth Blackwell and Elizabeth Garrett Anderson were assertive and polite in their efforts. Sophia Jex-Blake was outspoken, challenging and sometimes inflammatory. The early women doctors heard from their female patients how important it was to have a female treat them. Some medical schools refused to admit women. Some professors refused to allow women in their classes. Women were ridiculed and harassed and had mud flung at them. Sometimes they had to pay more for the education and take tests that were more difficult than the tests for the men. Doctor Joseph Lister, the doctor who pioneered antiseptic surgery, was one of the most misogynistic characters I have ever read about. Reading about him was absolutely infuriating.