Surgical controversy at the New Hospital for Women, 1872-1892

This article examines the complex position of nineteenth-century women surgeons, employing the New Hospital for Women in London, with its all-female medical staff, as a case study. An examination of a variety of published and manuscript sources reveal that, while the Victorian woman surgeon was a reality, her position was a precarious one. A lack of clinical experience was a factor in her difficulties, but there were also a number of other concerns, not the least of which was antagonism from medical women themselves about the performance of surgical procedures by their female colleagues.