Emily Stowe | |
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| Born | Emily Howard Jennings (1831-05-01)May 1, 1831 Norwich Township, Oxford County, Ontario |
| Died | April 30, 1903(1903-04-30) (aged 71) |
| Nationality | Canadian |
| Education | New York Medical College for Women |
| Occupations | |
Emily Howard Stowe (née Jennings; May 1, 1831 – April 30, 1903)[1] was aCanadian physician who was the firstfemale physician to practise in Canada, the second licensed female physician in Canada[2] and an activist forwomen's rights andsuffrage.[3] Stowe helped found thewomen's suffrage movement in Canada and campaigned for the country's first medical college for women.[4]
Emily Howard Jennings was born inNorwich Township,Oxford County, Ontario, as one of six daughters of farmers Hannah Howard and Solomon Jennings.[5] While Solomon converted toMethodism, Hannah (who had been educated at aQuaker seminary in the United States) raised her daughters as Quakers in a community that encouraged women to participate and receive an education. She home-schooled Stowe and her five sisters and taught them skills in herbal healing.[5] After teaching at local schools for seven years, her public struggle to achieve equality for women began in 1852, when she applied for admission toVictoria College,Cobourg, Ontario. Refused on the grounds that she was female, she applied to theNormal School for Upper Canada, whichEgerton Ryerson had recently founded inToronto. She entered in November 1853 and was graduated withfirst-class honours in 1854.[4] Hired asprincipal of aBrantford, Ontariopublic school, she was the first woman to be a principal of a public school inUpper Canada. She taught there until her marriage in 1856 (seeMarriage bar).
She married John Fiuscia Michael Heward Stowe in 1856. In the next seven years she had three children: two sons and a daughter. Shortly after the birth of their third child, her husband developedtuberculosis, which led her to take a renewed interest in medicine. Having had experience withherbal remedies andhomeopathic medicine since the 1840s, Emily Stowe left teaching and decided to become a doctor.[4]
Stowe was denied entrance into the Toronto School of Medicine in 1865 and was told by its Vice Principal, "The doors of the University are not open to women and I trust they never will be."[6] Unable to study medicine in Canada, Emily Stowe earned her degree in the United States from the homeopathicNew York Medical College for Women in 1867. The same year, she returned to Canada and opened amedical practice in Toronto,[6] on Richmond Street,[4] that specialized in treating women and children.[5] Stowe gained some local prominence through public lectures on women's health and maintained a steady clientele through newspaper advertisements.[6]
In the mid-1860s, Canada's medical licensing system began requiring homeopathic doctors and doctors trained in the United States to obtain licences by taking more courses and an examination. In 1869, Stowe's application to the University of Toronto for chemistry and physiology courses was denied.[5] In 1870, the president of theToronto School of Medicine, Dr. William Thomas Aikins,[7] granted special permission to Stowe and fellow studentJennie Kidd Trout to attend classes, a requirement for medical practitioners with foreign licences. Faced with hostility from both the male faculty and students, Stowe refused to take the oral and written exams and left the school.[6]
In 1879, one of Stowe's patients, a nineteen-year old Sarah Lovell, died, and Stowe was charged with providing an abortion to her patient. Stowe testified that she had prescribed Lovell a one thirtieth of the full dose of drug that could cause a miscarriage, an amount too small to cause a miscarriage.[5] Many members and male leaders of the Toronto medical community came to her defence.[7] Though the coroner's jury ruled that Lovell had poisoned herself, Stowe was charged with performing a medical abortion. Stowe was acquitted aftera short trial during which she gained public support.[8]
TheCollege of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario granted Stowe a licence to practise medicine on July 16, 1880, based on her experience since 1850,[6] Dr. Aikins' willingness to testify for her,[7] and her earlier apprenticeship to Dr. Joseph J. Lancaster.[5] This licence made Stowe the second female licensed physician in Canada, after Trout.[6]
On June 13, 1883, Dr. Emily Stowe, a suffragist and first woman physician to practice medicine in Canada, led a group of supporters to a meeting at the Toronto Women's Suffrage Club where the group tabled a resolution stating "that medical education for women is a recognized necessity, and consequently facilities for such instruction should be provided."[9]
Her daughter,Augusta Stowe-Gullen, was the first woman to earn a medical degree in Canada.[10]
While studying medicine in New York, Stowe met withSusan B. Anthony and witnessed the divisions within theAmerican women's suffrage movement. Stowe also attended a women's club meeting inCleveland, Ohio. Stowe adopted a gradualist strategy which she brought back to her work in Canada.[6]
In 1876, Stowe founded the Toronto Women's Literary Club, renamed theCanadian Women's Suffrage Association in 1883.[6] This has led some to consider Stowe the mother of the suffrage movement in Canada. The Literary Club campaigned for improved working conditions for women and pressured schools in Toronto to accept women into higher education.[5] In 1883, a public meeting of the Suffrage Association led to the formation of theOntario Medical College for Women,[4] the country's first women's medical school.[5] When theDominion Women's Enfranchisement Association was founded in 1889, Stowe became its first president and remained president until her death.[11]
As is true for many suffragists, a tension existed between Stowe's commitment to fellow women and class loyalty. In an episode that may demonstrate the dominance of the latter, Stowe broke the bond ofdoctor-patient confidentiality by disclosing the abortion request of a patient, Sara Ann Lovell, a domestic servant, to her employer. (SeeAbortion trial of Emily Stowe.) Stowe, however, sharply criticized theNational Policy economic program in 1892. She believed that it would not help working-class Canadians and was instead a corrupt deal on behalf of major businesses.[12]
After breaking her hip at theColumbian Exposition's Women's Congress in 1893, Stowe retired from medicine. In 1896, Emily and her daughter Augusta participated in an all-female "mock parliament," in which the women considered a petition from a male delegation for the right to vote. Stowe, as the Attorney General, used the same arguments that the Canadian Parliament had levelled against female suffragists and denied the petition.[4] Stowe died in 1903, fourteen years before Canadian women were granted the right to vote.
While she counted herself aQuaker until 1879, she became aUnitarian in 1879 and attended theFirst Unitarian Congregation of Toronto.[citation needed]
Stowe was the first female public-school principal in Ontario, the first female physician to practice medicine in Canada and a lifelong champion of women's rights who helped to found the Canadian Women's Suffrage Association.[11]
Public elementary schools in her hometown ofNorwich Township (Emily Stowe Public School) as well asCourtice, Ontario are named after her.[13] Awomen's shelter in Toronto, Canada, is named after her.[14] In 2018, she was inducted into theCanadian Medical Hall of Fame.[15]
Stowe.
Her experience gave her a special insight when she later became a counsellor at the Emily Stowe Shelter for Women.
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