A Respectable Occupation: - University of Hertfordshire Research ...

the point of view of the female assistants, this medical backwater provided
an opportunity for them to secure their financial future, should they not
marry or should they marry and be widowed. It made them into pioneers in
breaking the bonds that tied young middle class women to their family
homes. It demonstrated that young women, given a suitable education,
were perfectly capable of working in the same capacity as a man in a
scientifically based career. It also gave them a stepping stone into the
profession of pharmacy and as we will discuss later, some of them took
advantage of this.
The Social Background of the Apothecaries’ Assistants
We have previously discussed the statements in the literature concerning
the dilemma fathers faced in allocating their funds to secure their children‘s
future. These statements are typified by Avery‘s comment, that while the
less wealthy professional men might have been able to set up their sons in
life, they could not afford to do the same for their daughters. 166 In an
attempt to test these assertions an analysis has been performed involving
554 women who sat the apothecaries‘ assistant‘s examination between 1887
and 1900. This rather limited period of research is bounded by two events:
it was not until 1887 that the first woman qualified and the most recent
census available to us is dated 1901.
166 Avery, The Best Type of Girl, p. 5.
187