'The question is one of extreme difficulty': The admission of women to the British and Irish medical profession, C. 1850–1920

This chapter examines the history of women's entry to the medical profession in Britain and Ireland. It explores contemporary arguments both for and against women’s entry to British and Irish medical schools in the nineteenth century, illustrating how such arguments centred on women’s physical, emotional and mental natures, and how these made them either fit or unfit to be doctors. The chapter also examines the experiences of early women doctors who gained entry to medical schools in this period. The importance of the First World War in further opening avenues to women who wished to study medicine is also explored. The chapter ultimately shows how Victorian attitudes to women in the medical profession persisted well into the twentieth century.