Emily Stowe
Dr. Emily Howard Stowe née Jennings (May 1, 1831 – April 30, 1903) was the first female doctor to practise in Canada, and an activist for women's rights and suffrage. Since no medical school would accept a woman in the 1860s, she earned her degree in the United States, graduating from the New York Medical College for Women in 1867, and returned to open a practice in Toronto, Ontario.
Despite having the required qualifications, the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario refused to license Stowe because no Canadian school would allow a woman to sit the qualifying examinations. Stowe and Jennie Kidd Trout were finally admitted for preparatory courses and qualifying exams at the Toronto School of Medicine. Stowe became the second female licensed physician in Canada in 1880.
Her daughter, Augusta Stowe-Gullen, was the first woman to earn a medical degree in Canada.
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Categories: 1831 births | 1903 deaths | Canadian physicians | Early Canadian feminists | Canadian people stubs