Review by Choice Review
Bonner's excellent book provides a new dimension to the chronicle of 19th-century women's quest for medical education. Notwithstanding surface appearances of separate but equal access to American medical education by mid-century, women's medical training in the US often was limited to second-rate institutions. Bonner documents women's determination to secure university medical education on a par with the training then available to men. That determination took thousands to Switzerland and France, where women found entry into the university schools. (By contrast, German and English universities remained closed to women longer.) American and European women took advantage of the Continental opportunities; in fact, the procession of foreign women into the schools of Paris, Zurich, Bern, and Geneva formed, according to Bonner, the largest historical migration of women for postgraduate education. Their story speaks of single-mindedness in spite of the burdens imposed by travel, study in a second language, impecunity, and often less than welcoming surroundings; the Russian chapter is particularly interesting. Bonner offers biographical sketches and lively anecdotes that make the book extremely readable. Recommended for women's studies and history of science and medicine collections in public and academic libraries.-J. P. Brickman, United States Merchant Marine Academy
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
