Apparatus XY

11 In addition, while advanced education was expensive for both men and women, women faced particular hurdles. This problem was noted by men who supported women as well as by women themselves. Dr. Ned Park of Hopkins Hospital wrote to Sabin about a young woman for whom he was seeking fellowship aid:

She is one of the ablest women I have come across in medicine,…and is forced, literally to earn her daily bread as she goes along. She must work this summer in order to go on during the next school year. It strikes me that she presents all the reasons for the existence of the fellowships and the fact that she is a woman, and, therefore, has not got the earning capacity of a man is an additional reason. (25 Jan. 1930, Candidates #2, Box C-Cr, APS)

When the Rocky Mountain region of the American Association of University Women named a fellowship for Sabin, they noted in their pamphlet the real problem of too few fellowships, stating that one hundred thirty-one women had applied for nine available fellowships in 1930 (Series I, Box 4, Folder 3, SSC).

12 The Depression posed new problems as hiring declined in general while the problems of training women continued. James McDonald of the Foreign Policy Association cited these in a speech given in 1933 in honor of Eleanor Roosevelt. He acknowledged that most scientific societies admitted women but noted that the Association of American Physicians and the Society for Clinical Investigation still refused to. He also brought attention to Harvard's refusal to admit women and the fact that it was "virtually impossible for women doctors to obtain residency" (9 Feb. 1933 Esther G. Ogden to Sabin, Series V, Box 28, Folder 4, SSC).

13 During the Second World war, things became even more difficult as the government sought to train men for future military service. A former Hopkins man at the University of Oklahoma wrote to Sabin about a Miss Sue Browder, one of the most brilliant medical students he had met, who "because she is a woman we seem unable to consider her for our own loans; the entire emphasis at present is on the production of male doctors for future military service" (18 May 1942 C. F. DeGaris, Box Cu-Doan #5, APS).[5]Browder did eventually get money from the Kellogg Fund and an assistantship. As late as 1948 Walther F. Goebel was seeking information on fellowships beyond the AAUW for a talented lab technician, to continue for a Ph.D. (9 Sept. 1948 to Sabin, Series II, Box 11, Folder 1, SSC).

14 Perhaps even greater than the problem of being admitted to a good medical school, was the issue of education after graduation. There was originally no matching system for hospitals and internships, and women often found it difficult to get placement. As far back as 1901 a medical graduate, Emily Dunning Barringer, complained about the lack of post-graduate training available to women, and in 1916 the limited possibilities for internships were rued by Hopkins's student Martha May Eliot (Morantz-Sanchez 167, 165).[6]Sabin had landed an internship at Hopkins by being third in the class, joined by fourth-place Dorothy Reed.That same year, in a letter to Sabin on someone seeking training in obstetrics, the writer recommended an internship in gynecology first, noting that it was extremely difficult to get training in obstetric operation (16 Jan. Elizabeth Stowdon, Box Ste-Thomas, APS). At least by 1916, Sabin was able to respond to a similar inquiry concerning obstetrical surgery by a former student Louise Branscomb, with the names of three women surgeons (9 Nov. 1930 Branscomb to Sabin and 15 Nov. response, Box Be-Bu, APS). In 1923, Ned Park of the Yale University School of Medicine wrote to Sabin that they could not find a place for a recommended woman doctor since they were already taking one woman, who had graduated first in her class at P&S (26 Dec. Box O-Ree, APS). Sabin herself wrote to Ellen Finley in Baltimore in 1924 asking where their women graduates interned. The response included Presbyterian Hospital in New York for medicine, New Haven for medicine or pediatrics, Massachusetts General for pediatrics. Other possibilities included Massachusetts Homeopathic Hospital, New England Infirmary for Women & Children, New York Infirmary for Women & Children, Rockefeller, Bellevue, University of California Medical School and Worcester Memorial Hospital (23 Jan. Box Doan Part 2-Fi, APS). It was a limited list, which would have been even shorter had the women's hospitals been eliminated. As late as 1936, a number of women at Boston University Medical School wrote to Sabin for advice on this problem. They explained in their letter that of the sixty-four New England accredited hospitals only seven would accept women. The excuse given by the hospitals was that they did not have accommodations for women, but the medical students did not find that credible since they were willing to live in the nurses' quarters (6 May 1936 Box U-W2, W#2, APS). The survey mentioned earlier by the American Medical Women's Association acknowledged the improvement in the internship situation for women but warned of the continuing problem with finding approved residencies (Women in medicine, 1939, SSC).

Career Advancement

15The problem existed at every point on the career path. In 1931 a University of Colorado Medical School graduate wrote to Sabin for advice on where to go for both good clinical and research experience. In her reply, after advising the graduate to look for someone whose work interested her, she warned that "it is relatively difficult for women to obtain positions … with adequate opportunities for research work in clinical medicine"(17 Jan. 1931 to Julia Cole, Box C-Cr, APS). Certainly some places and individuals were known to be more sympathetic to women and to research than others, and some individuals specifically sought out women. For example, Ernest Sachs of the Washington University School of Medicine wrote to Sabin about suggestions for a woman to work in his laboratory on the neuro-pathology of tumors. Sabin responded in support of Dorothy Anderson of Columbia as well as (an unidentified) Dr. Smith (11 April 1930 Sachs to Sabin and 17 April Sabin to Sachs, Box S-Smith, APS).[7]This was possibly Dr. Christianna Smith of Mt. Holyoke, who, Sabin feared, had too few funds for research. See paragraph 18. Similarly, Dr. Charles Austrian wrote to Sabin seeking a woman to replace Dr. Roxie Weber, who resigned as Director of the Clinical Laboratory at the Sinai Hospital in Baltimore. In her response, Sabin commented, "It pleases me very much that you are willing to give so good an opportunity to a woman" (30 May 1928 Austrian to Sabin and 31 May Sabin to Austrian, Box An-Ba, APS). An early haven proved to be the University of Arkansas Medical Department, where Margaret Hoskins happily found work. In 1922 she wrote to Sabin that she went from having worried about where she herself would find work the previous year to looking to find someone for the Department of Gross and Microscopic Anatomy. Commenting on the atmosphere there she said, "I can almost say that I am not hampered at all by my sex, and you know how rare that is!" (17 Apr. 1922, Home-Je, APS).