Breaking Barriers: The History of Women's Education and the Training of Female Surgeons

Medicine and surgery have been practised by women since the earliest of times, but as these activities became professionalised, they became excluded by various barriers. The aims of this review are to identify these obstacles and how they were overcome.

An analysis was undertaken of the history of women's education and of female surgeons, and of the contemporary factors which influenced their development.

Victorian assumptions about gender differences and societal roles resulted in a lack of educational opportunities for girls and women, their exclusion from university and medical college examinations, and from opportunities to train in hospitals. Claims that the anatomy dissection room and the operating theatre were unsuitable environments for women were further obstacles for those who wished to become surgeons. Examination of the lives of those women who led the changes in education, and of the first females to obtain the Fellowship of the different Royal Colleges of Surgeons by examination, or to become Board Certified in the US, illustrates the challenges they overcame and the important roles they played in health care and medical research. Despite their success and that of the countless female surgeons who have since followed them, challenges remain.

Analysis of the history of the education of young women and of the first female surgeons demonstrates the barriers and unfounded biases they overcame. To achieve the satisfactory recruitment, education, training, career success and retention of women surgeons, lessons must be learned from history and the remaining obstacles overcome.