WOMEN STUDENTS.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 70, 23 March 1928, Page 5

WOMEN STUDENTS.

LONDON HOSPITALS' BAN.

NEW ZEALAND OPINIONS.

"AN ABSURD OBJECTION."

THE LADY DOCTOR HAS COME TO STAY. (By Telegraph.— Special to "Star.") WELLINGTON, this day. The announcement that five big London hospitals have decided to ban further women students on account of the attitude of male students is commented upon adversely by local doctors.

Sir Donald McGavin, the well-known surgeon, who is president of the local branch of th© British Medical Association, said he could not say what it was like to work with women students, because they came after his time. He did not agree that women were unsuccessful as doctors, and he thought it unfair to say so. There had always been a prejudice against lady doctors on the part of woman as well as of men, and though the prejudice was not so strong as it used to 'be, it would probably remain for many years to come. Women doctors in New Zealand, as well as in other parts of the world, made a study of women's diseases, and also a study of children. It did not seem at all reasonable that girl students would interfere with male students' studies any more than a nurse would. He thought it absurd to blame women students and to ban them because it was declared that they were a "distraction to the study of the male, that they interfered with athletics, and that they did not make successful doctors."

It was true that the scope of the lady doctor was limited, but, at the same time, she was essential, and had come to stay. The objections raised bv the hospital authorities could apply equally to art or any other faculty where training is mixed.

It seems that the old-time prejudice against women doctors has been revived," gaid Dr. Elizabeth Bryson. "That i 3 really what it amounts to. The young men do not want young women to become doctors, so they have raised reasons which are not reasons at all. Men think that women have not the same intelligence «r understanding that they have, and some young doctors do not want them to practise. That is certainly what it looks like, doesn't it? If a man fails as a doctor you never hear anyone say he's failed because he was a man. No, of course vou don't. But if a lady student or doctor fails the men don't say she failed for anything, but that she failed because she was a woman. The man wants to have his own way; the woman must not have rights or his privileges. Women doctors have been successful and none of the objections raised in Ensland has ever been raised in Dunedin, where students of both sexes train together in perfect understanding." Dr. Ada Paterson, of the Health Department, said if the male student was distracted by the female student at Home, then such was certainly not the case in New Zealand. In Dunedin they worked well together, and the young men would either laugh or be greatlv annoyed indeed if told that women students were drawing their attention away from athletics.

Peterson thought the decision to ban further women students was a most unfair one. Women had proved their worthy in medicine, and their rights were now, it seemed, to a certain extent being taken away. The whole thing seemed foolish, and it was quite clear that the views given in London for banning the women were not the real reason at all.