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As is apparent, the KQCPI was very important for the registration of women doctors
in the United Kingdom. The rest of this thesis will investigate the reasons why the
KQCPI opened its examinations to women, the backgrounds and experiences of
women medical students at Irish institutions, and the careers that they went on to
have after graduation.
Outline of chapters
Chapter 1 will set the scene for the following chapters, examining the arguments for
and against women in medicine that proliferated in the late nineteenth and early
twentieth centuries, arguing that Ireland possessed a generally liberal attitude
towards women in higher education which determined its attitude towards women in
the medical profession. It will suggest that the KQCPI decided to admit women for a
combination of factors. It is likely that the KQCPI viewed admission of women from
a financial point of view, in terms of gaining income from the fees from women
students. However, also important is the context of Dublin society in the late
nineteenth century which was open-minded to the issue of women’s higher
education, as demonstrated by women’s admission to the Museum of Irish Industry
and the Royal College of Science from the 1850s and 1860s. This chapter will
highlight the distinctiveness of Irish medical education and the Irish context in a
period when attitudes towards women in Britain were often hostile and attempts
made by women to gain admission to university to study medicine were frequently
hindered.
Chapter 2 examines the women who decided to matriculate in medicine in the
period 1885 to 1922. It is largely based on the statistical work I have conducted on
women who matriculated in medicine in the period based on my database of
women medical students. Other sources used include student guides from the
period and contemporary articles from newspapers and medical journals. It will
reveal that women medical students tended to come from well-to-do background
and tended to attend the university closest to them for financial reasons, although
their choice of university also hinged on their religious beliefs and on which
universities were open to women at the time. I will also discuss the reasons why
women (and men) decided to take up medicine in the late nineteenth and early
twentieth centuries, in particular, demonstrating that women students took up
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