Review: Women in White Coats
Women in White Coats: How the First Women Doctors Changed the World of Medicine
Olivia Campbell
Synopsis: A look at the women who first successfully fought there way into the medical field.
Rating: PG-13 Slightly graphic medical descriptions
As a woman, it’s hard to imagine a time when women weren’t allowed to do things like vote, or become doctors, and humbling to remember those who fought their way through the proverbial glass ceiling, paving the way for more to come. Reading this book, I felt endless gratitude to these incredible women who not only made it possible for generations of women to pursue a career in medicine, but also changed the way medical professionals treat women.
Some of the things discussed in this book were nothing short of shocking to me. The things that they believed about women’s bodies –like believing that the uterus would begin to “travel” around the body if it went too long without getting pregnant– or that women had no business practicing obstetrics are just mind boggling. I can’t help but wonder how these male doctors couldn’t see the double standard in it being acceptable for THEM to study a woman’s body, yet completely unreasonable for a woman to study a man’s body. I spent the better part of this book SO frustrated with how they thought and at the same time so grateful it’s not that way anymore. I also cannot state strongly enough just how happy I am to not have been a person who needed medical care in the mid 1800s. To say it was brutal would be the most massive of understatements.
Women in White Coats is fascinating. While we still have work to do in terms of equality for women, it is refreshing to see how far we have come, and to know that great changes ARE possible. We have women, like those in this book, to thank for their endless uphill battle, and their tenacity to push for what they believed in. Apart from the general knowledge offered in Women in White Coats, I feel like I walked away with my belief that we are capable of great things reaffirmed.
Fans of history will be sure to enjoy this one!