WOMEN IN MEDICINE

New Zealand Times, Volume LII, Issue 12041, 20 January 1925, Page 4

WOMEN IN MEDICINE

For,some time the daily press in London has been (Hade the medium of , a continual series-of suggestions that too many women arts entering-—or have en-tiered—-the, medical profession, states "Time and Tide*’; that these is. not work for them-; that they are beginning to realise, their mistake; , that parents are beginning to doubt tit* wj*«w». pf enteringJthem. daughters for the prefer, sion, and so on and so forth, all tending tp duscpifrage women from -entering th e profession of medicine- .This type of remark has most frequently emanated from the “Times” medical correspondent, who seems to have a peculiar dislike of women in medicine,» but ft bps also been. noticeable in a number of other papers. Tfie “Evening Standard,” for instance, which has never lost an opportnnity.'of writing- lu-tbis sen’se/rpdently published an interview with the secretary of the, British Medical Asspciatiou, in which that official was made 1 oateforieally to assert: “There are too many women doctors.’’ The thing has been done in so-continuous, so widespread a fashion as to amount to a press campaign, -and it is, in fact, difficult to beli(|ve that there is not some conscious plan, at work, some little group of medical -practitioners deliberately out to'do what, they can to pr»r Tent the farther invasion of the medical -profession. by women. _ In fact, the suggestion..that there are too many women in ntedicine comes perilously, near to deliberate falsehood. ’lt may ■ possibly be true to say that the m«mcaj profession, as a whole, is - overstocked,-, but when we consider that of the fSjOGO qualified practitioners on -the register less than. 3000 am Women, in becomes almost absurd to suggest that there is too great a proportion pf women. And it is, as a- matter of faqt, genej’ally, admitted by those in a position (s'know, that medical women today find it easier to obtain work than do- medical men.' The reasons for suggestions to the contrary are,.however, not far to seek- In addition to the almost pathological sex antagonism , displayed bysuch men a* Sir Almrofh Wright, with whom a dislike of the pro-, fessional wpman is something of an obsession, pad , who is said to be largely responsible for the attempt 'to turn women out of St. . Mary’s Hospital, “hgiß.ifi the_natural fa»r of.the.younger men for a n«w;aml potentially serions economic rival. , Before thewar mlical women were so new and so few that' •t was possible tocbsragard them, today it is being recognised that they bav* come to stay, and not only tootsy, -to-increase; hence the determinodTast fight of the reactionaries-against them. Iso long as .the present attempt to circumscribe their opportunities continues and_ so many hospitals refuse to Open their doors to them, those who are interested .in their success in. this great profession. will be well advised to subscribe only either to the pioneer'London .School of Medicine for Women or jto one of the hospitals to which a eo-edu* cational school is attached.