A New and Untried Course - by Steve J Peitzman (Paperback)

About the Book

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.

Book Synopsis

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

Review Quotes

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

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

About the Author

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