A New and Untried Course: Women's Medical College and Medical College of Pennysylvania, 1850-1998

by Steve J Peitzman MD

Overview

In 1850, a group of reformist male Quaker physicians and allies founded the Female Medical College of Pennsylvania to offer formal medical training to women. By the 1890s, the renamed Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania (WMC) had matured into a solid and progressive institution that would outlast other, younger women's medical schools that had arisen in the United States. Steven J. Peitzman describes how WMC survived periods of instability and crises as it became a remarkable experiment in single-sex professional education, and a rare early example of female-male collaboration in science and medicine. Its unique survival provided scarce opportunities for women physicians and scientists to teach and perform research, while maintaining the assurance of medical education free from gender discrimination, Yielding to complex forces, it became the coeducational Medical College of Pennsylvania in 1970 and found another new course to pursue

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780813528168
Publisher:	Rutgers University Press
Publication date:	04/01/2000
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	244
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Steven J. Peitzman, M.D. is a professor of medicine and former archives historian at MCP Hahnemann School of Medicine.

Table of Contents

Ch. 1. "A New and Untried Course"
Ch. 2. Building Within, Opposition Without
Ch. 3. Ann Preston, M.D.: An Excursus
Ch. 4. Deans Bodley and Marshall: Approaching a Golden Age
Ch. 5. Curriculum, Clinics, and Coeducation in the Faculty
Ch. 6. Student Life at the Mature "Woman's Med"
Ch. 7. The Age of Educational Reform: 1900-1920
Ch. 8. The Troubled 1920s and the Tallant Affair
Ch. 9. As One Hundred Years Approached
Ch. 10. The Marion Fay Years: Reshaping the "Good Medical School"
Ch. 11. Coeducation (coauthored with Kristin Bunin)
Ch. 12. Medical College of Pennsylvania: What Course Now?

What People are Saying About This

Kenneth M. Ludmerer

A New and Untried Course is a fascinating and superbly executed study of an important medical school-richly researched, beautifully written, highly nuanced, and elegantly contextualized in women's, medical, an cultural history. It will become a model for writing the history of medical schools.
— (Kenneth M. Ludmerer, author of Time to Heal: American Medical Education from the Turn of the Century to the Era of Managed Care.)

Regina Morantz-Sancher

Lively, readable, and meticulously researched, Steve Peitzman lovingly and valiantly retrieves the fascinating history of the premier training institution for women physicians in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. This book will join a list of 'must-reads' for those interested in the history of women physicians in the United States, as well as appeal to historians of medicine, women, and the professions.
— (Regina Morantz-Sancher, author of Conduct Unbecoming a Woman: Medicine on Trial in Turn-of-the-Century Brooklyn.)

Editorial Reviews

Lively, readable, and meticulously researched, Steve Peitzman lovingly and valiantly retrieves the fascinating history of the premier training institution for women physicians in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. This book will join a list of 'must-reads' for those interested in the history of women physicians in the United States, as well as appeal to historians of medicine, women, and the professions.

author of Conduct Unbecoming a Woman: Medicine on Trial in Turn-of-the-Century Brooklyn - Regina Morantz-Sanchez

A New and Untried Course is a fascinating and superbly executed study of an important medical school - richly researched, beautifully written, highly nuanced, and elegantly contextualized in women's, medical, and cultural history. It will become a model for writing the history of medical schools.

author of Time to Heal: American Medical Education from the Turn of the Century to the Era of Manage - Kenneth M. Ludmerer

Peitzman (professor of medicine and former archives historian at MCP Hahnemann School of Medicine) examines the founding, growth, and evolution of the world's first school established specifically to offer M.D. training to women, and its co-educational successor. Peitzman describes how WMC survived periods of instability and crisis as it experimented with single-sex professional education and became a rare early example of female-male collaboration in science and medicine. The book also explores the lives and work of the medical students, including African American and Jewish women, who gained admission in the 1870s. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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