Irish women in medicine, c.1880s-1920s: Origins, education and careers - Softcover

This volume injects some overdue energy into this important topic. It is meticulously researched, well written and offers scholars a number of research avenues worth pursuing, but also a rich 'Bibliographical Index' which alone could generate new projects and findings. Even without this valuable 37-page section, this book would be the most comprehensive study of women medical professionals in Ireland. It should easily find a place on medical history reading lists, but would be a worthy addition to broader courses on women's history and the history of education. Interesting take on women's history in Ireland. 'Kelly has achieved a lot in her first book and offers promising scope for future research about medical women in Ireland after 1922. Additionally, she shows that statistical work needs to be done to unearth the backgrounds and professional lives of men medical graduates in Ireland in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries-a glittering research area yet to be mined.' Vanessa Witton, Sydney, Health and history, 19/1 2017 -- .

This book is the first comprehensive history of Irish women in medicine in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It focuses on the debates surrounding women's admission to Irish medical schools, the geographical and social backgrounds of early women medical students, their educational experiences and their subsequent careers. Kelly portrays Irish medical schools as open-minded with regard to the admission of women to the medical profession and suggests that women were treated fairly during their time in medical education. The study highlights major differences between Irish and British experiences: most significantly, that Irish institutions were more open-minded than Britain's with regard to attitudes towards women's medical education, and that the Irish system of medical education was inclusive and paternalistic towards women students. At the same time, women medical students, in common with their British and American sisters, were certainly seen as a separate cohort from the men and had a distinctive social identity which was crafted both by and for them. The book also covers women's subsequent careers within the medical profession. Most importantly, this book will change the way we consider the history of women in medicine, higher education and the professions in Ireland.