The Cure for Women: Dr. Mary Putnam Jacobi and the Challenge to Victorian Medicine That Changed Women’s Lives Forever

In the 19th-century United States, women who wished to become doctors had limited opportunities because they were not welcome in most American universities. Many resorted to studying in Europe or one of the women-operated medical schools in the United States. Reeder (Dust Bowl Girls: The Inspiring Story of the Team That Barnstormed Its Way to Basketball Glory) spotlights doctor Mary Putnam Jacobi and her efforts to provide medical education to women in the U.S. Jacobi was trained in Europe but returned to the States to teach and manage her own medical practice. She was a published researcher who pioneered scientific methods of conducting research with human subjects. As her influence grew, she played a key role in funding the Johns Hopkins University graduate school for medicine, which was the first to provide a coeducational environment for medical students. Reeder profiles many other prominent women doctors, as well as men doctors, some of whom who were notorious for their opposition to allowing women to study medicine and others of whom became allies to women. In her later years, Jacobi became active in the suffrage cause and motivated many of New York City’s distinguished and wealthy women to support a woman’s right to vote.