BUILDING THE NATION THROUGH WOMEN'S HEALTH: MODERN ...

Christian Medical College, and Chinese Medical Journal editor Lee T’ao, the medical profession
was the fastest growing and most welcoming professional field for young women. 474 In 1933,
there were 28 medical schools in China, and only two did not accept women: the Army Medical
School in Nanjing and Aurora University College of Medicine, a French-run institution in
Shanghai. (Interestingly, the Yunnan Army Medical College in Kunming did accept women and
had eight female students in 1931.) Women were encouraged to go into the fields of public
health, OB/GYN, and pediatrics. The emphasis on such courses is evident when we compare the
number of hours required for each subject in women’s colleges and coeducational institutions.
For example, Hackett Medical College for Women in Guangzhou required 674 hours of
obstetrics and gynecology, while the coeducational St. John’s University College of Medicine in
Shanghai only listed 96 such hours of instruction. Hackett’s pediatrics curriculum was 252 hours
versus 33 hours at St. John’s. 475
The professionalization process did not come without drawbacks. Female nurses and
midwives were often underpaid and worked under difficult conditions, especially in the early
years when they worked in mission hospitals. 476 Even Chinese physicians in medical missions
did not receive equal pay to Western physicians for doing the same job. Women medical
professionals also had to juggle the triple burden of family member care, housework, and a
professional career. In addition to being family caretakers, women bore the burden of being
caretakers of the nation and the nation’s future population. Furthermore, as Paul Bailey has
illustrated, there was no linear progression from house bound Chinese woman to socially
474
T'ao, "Some Statistics on Medical Schools in China for 1932-1933," Tao, "Medical Education of Chinese
Women."
475
Tao, "Medical Education of Chinese Women," 1034.
476
Rong Wangxi, "Jiu Shehui Hushi De Shenghuo" (The Life of a Nurse in the Old Days) in Huaxian Wenshi Ziliao
(Huaxian Gazetteer), vol. 5, (Henan sheng, Huaxian: Zhengxie huaxian weiyuanhui wenshi ziliao yanjiu weiyuanhui
bian, 1989): 100-03.
193