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View/Open - ARAN - National University of Ireland, Galway

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personal story which is sometimes lost in traditional social histories <strong>of</strong> medicine, yet<br />

rather than being traditional narratives <strong>of</strong> ‘great men’ and ‘great women’, they are<br />

narratives <strong>of</strong> ordinary women who trained at Irish institutions in the period and<br />

which demonstrate the themes considered in previous chapters.<br />

This thesis is important because up until now, there had been no comprehensive<br />

study <strong>of</strong> women in the medical pr<strong>of</strong>ession in <strong>Ireland</strong>. It portrays Irish medical<br />

schools as being liberal-minded with regard to the admission <strong>of</strong> women to the<br />

medical pr<strong>of</strong>ession. Moreover, it suggests that women were treated fairly by Irish<br />

institutions during their time in medical education. The thesis thus broadens our<br />

understanding <strong>of</strong> women in the medical pr<strong>of</strong>ession in <strong>Ireland</strong> and <strong>of</strong> women’s<br />

experiences at university more generally.<br />

Importantly, it will highlight the distinctiveness <strong>of</strong> Irish medical education in contrast<br />

with Britain, suggesting that there were important differences that existed between<br />

<strong>Ireland</strong> and Britain: most significant, the fact that <strong>Ireland</strong>, in particular, Dublin, was<br />

seemingly more liberal than Britain with regard to attitudes towards women’s<br />

medical education and that the Irish system <strong>of</strong> medical education appears to have<br />

been very much inclusive and paternalistic towards women students. At the same<br />

time, the study highlights the fact that despite this, women medical students, in<br />

common with their British and American sisters, were certainly seen as a separate<br />

cohort from the men with a distinctive social identity which was crafted both by and<br />

for them.<br />

Pertinently, this is also a study <strong>of</strong> women’s careers within the medical pr<strong>of</strong>ession in<br />

Britain and <strong>Ireland</strong>. It demonstrates that women doctors did not necessarily enter<br />

the careers that had been prescribed for them by advocates <strong>of</strong> women’s medical<br />

education in the nineteenth century. In addition, it highlights patterns <strong>of</strong> migration <strong>of</strong><br />

women doctors between Britain and <strong>Ireland</strong> as well as illuminating differences in<br />

career trends between the two countries.<br />

Most importantly, the thesis will change the way we consider the history <strong>of</strong> women<br />

in medicine in <strong>Ireland</strong>. Previously, women’s entry to Irish higher education and the<br />

admission <strong>of</strong> women to medical education has been depicted as a ‘struggle’ against<br />

18

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