The Contributions of Women Physicians to Medical Communication in the Late 1800s.

1. The Contributions of Women Physicians to Medical Communication in the Late 1800s. Kelly schrank Fall 2013 Capstone

2. Agenda • Narrowing my Focus • Historical Context • Timeline • Gathering Information • Evaluating What I Found • Conclusion

3. Narrowing my Focus • Initial Proposal: • History of Women in Technical and Medical Communication • Outline and Bib: • Women’s Contributions to Technical and Medical Communication in the Nineteenth Century • First Draft: • Women’s Contributions to Technical and Medical Communication in the Progressive Era (1890-1920) • Second Draft: • Women Physician’s Contributions to Medical Communication in the Late 1880s • Final Draft: • The Contributions of Women Physicians to Medical Communication in the Late 1880s

4. Historical Context • Medicine as a Profession • State of Flux • Deregulated • Licenses were not needed to practice

5. Historical Context • Separate Spheres • Women were groomed for the domestic sphere • Men were groomed for the public sphere • Taking care of family members • Getting married • Bearing children • Getting an education • Pursuing a profession • Speaking out • Having political opinions

6. Timeline Rebecca Lee Crumpler 1831-1895 Hannah Longshore 1819-1910 Julia W. Carpenter 1863-1920 Mary Putnam Jacobi 1842-1906 Elizabeth Blackwell 1821-1910 Ann Preston 1813-1872 1800 1810 1820 1830 1840 1850 1860 1870 1880 1890 1900 1849 Elizabeth Blackwell is first woman in US to get a medical degree 1864 Rebecca Lee Crumpler is first African-American woman in US to get a medical degree 1852 Ann Preston graduates with first class of students from Women’s Medical College of Philadelphia

7. Gathering Information • Articles in scholarly journals • “Incompatible Rhetorical Expectations: Julia W. Carpenter’s Medical Society Papers, 1895–1899.” by Carolyn Skinner (2012) • Books • Out of the Dead House: Nineteenth-century Women Physicians and the Writing of Medicine by Susan Wells (2001) • Web • Actual historical articles • National Institute of Medicine’s “Changing Faces of Medicine” series

8. What They Wrote: • Articles in medical journals • Books • Essays • Institutional Writing • Letters • Medical School Theses

9. Evaluating What They Wrote: • How did they evaluate and respond to the needs of their audience? • Some were successful in balancing their femininity with scientific work. Others tried different rhetorical devices and were met with resistance. • How did their writing compare to the writing of male physicians at the time? • Comparisons of male and female writing show similar writing styles and approaches to therapy. In the study of medical school theses, the only difference was their relation to the profession. The male medical school students seemed much more sure of their place in the profession, whereas the female medical school students were struggling to find their place within it.

10. Conclusion In many families and school, girls are still told they are not good in math and science and that they should become nurses instead of doctors. YET Women have been physicians and medical communicators for over 150 years! As with all histories, there are heroes, women who manage to make a difference in the world they inhabit, whatever its constraints and roadblocks. How they do so, their struggles, interest us but also inform us and help us carry on in the present.