Dr. Emily Howard Stowe (May 1, 1831 – April 29, 1903) was the first female doctor

Physician

A physician is a health care provider who practices the profession of medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring human health through the study, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, injury and other physical and mental impairments...

 to practice in Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

, and an activist for women's rights

Women's rights

Women's rights are entitlements and freedoms claimed for women and girls of all ages in many societies.In some places these rights are institutionalized or supported by law, local custom, and behaviour, whereas in others they may be ignored or suppressed...

 and suffrage

Suffrage

Suffrage, political franchise, or simply the franchise, distinct from mere voting rights, is the civil right to vote gained through the democratic process...

. Emily Stowe was born in Norwich Township, Oxford County

Oxford County, Ontario

Oxford County is a regional municipality and census division of the Canadian province of Ontario, located in the Southern portion of the province. The regional seat is in Woodstock...

, Ontario

Ontario

Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....

. Emily Stowe was related to John Smith.

Emily’s public struggle to achieve equality for women began in 1852, when she applied for admission to Victoria College

Victoria College

Victoria College is or was the name of several institutions of secondary or higher education, including:* [Victoria College, Chulipuram], Sri Lanka* Victoria College, Alexandria, Egypt* Victoria College in Victoria, Texas...

, Cobourg, Ontario

Cobourg, Ontario

Cobourg is a town in the Canadian province of Ontario, located in Southern Ontario 95 km east of Toronto. It is the largest town in Northumberland County. Its nearest neighbour is Port Hope, to the west. It is located along Highway 401 and the former Highway 2...

. Refused on the grounds that she was female, she applied to the Normal School for Upper Canada, which Egerton Ryerson

Egerton Ryerson

Adolphus Egerton Ryerson was a Methodist minister, educator, politician, and public education advocate in early Ontario, Canada...

 had recently founded in Toronto

Toronto

Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...

. She entered in November 1853 and was graduated with first-class honours in 1854. Hired as principal of a Brantford, Ontario

Brantford, Ontario

Brantford is a city located on the Grand River in Southern Ontario, Canada. While geographically surrounded by the County of Brant, the city is politically independent...

 public school, she was the first woman to be a principal of a public school in Upper Canada

Upper Canada

The Province of Upper Canada was a political division in British Canada established in 1791 by the British Empire to govern the central third of the lands in British North America and to accommodate Loyalist refugees from the United States of America after the American Revolution...

. She taught there until her marriage in 1856.

She married John Fiuscia Michael Heward Stowe in 1856. In the next seven years she had 3 children, in the course of which her husband also developed tuberculosis

Tuberculosis

Tuberculosis, MTB, or TB is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body...

, which in turn developed his wife's interest in herbal remedies and homeopathic medicine, a field in which her mother had also been interested. Emily Howard Stowe then decided to become a doctor.

Since no medical school

Medical school

A medical school is a tertiary educational institution—or part of such an institution—that teaches medicine. Degree programs offered at medical schools often include Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine, Bachelor/Doctor of Medicine, Doctor of Philosophy, master's degree, or other post-secondary...

 in Canada would accept a female even by the 1860 — "The doors of the University are not open to women and I trust they never will be," the University's vice-president told her — Emily Stowe earned her degree in the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

, graduating from the New York Medical College for Women (a homeopathic medical school) in 1867, and returned to open a practice

Practice

Practice may refer to:* Practice , a method of learning by repetition* Practice , a theoretical term for human action in society* Spiritual practice...

 in Toronto, Ontario without a license. She saved many children and women.

In 1870, the president of the Toronto School of Medicine granted special permission to Stowe and fellow student Jenny Kidd Trout to attend classes, though Stowe does not seem to have taken the exams for her license.

The College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario

College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario

The College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario is the governing body for medical doctors in Ontario, Canada.The college issues certificates of registration for all doctors to allow them to practise medicine as well as:...

 granted Stowe a licence to practice medicine on July 16, 1880, based on her past experience, making Stowe the second female licensed physician in Canada, after Trout.

Her daughter, Augusta Stowe-Gullen

Augusta Stowe-Gullen

Ann Augusta Stowe-Gullen , was a medical doctor, a lecturer and a suffragist. She was the daughter of Emily Howard Stowe.She is best known for being the first woman to graduate from a Canadian medical school. Her appeal to Dr...

, was the first woman to earn a medical degree in Canada.

Stowe was a prominent early suffragist, considered by some to be the mother of the movement in Canada. In 1877 she founded the Toronto Women's Literary Guild

Canadian Women's Suffrage Association

The Canadian Women's Suffrage Association was originally called the Toronto Women's Literary Guild as a screen for suffrage activities: in effect, its members worked undercover. The Guild, founded in 1877, was renamed in 1883 as the Toronto Women's Suffrage Association...

, a suffragist organization, and campaigned for professional, educational and occupational opportunities for women. When the Dominion Women’s Enfranchisement Association was founded in 1889, Stowe became its first president and remained president until her death.

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 of doctor-patient confidentiality by disclosing the abortion

Abortion

Abortion is defined as the termination of pregnancy by the removal or expulsion from the uterus of a fetus or embryo prior to viability. An abortion can occur spontaneously, in which case it is usually called a miscarriage, or it can be purposely induced...

 request of a patient, Sara Ann Lovell, a domestic servant, to her employer. (See Abortion trial of Emily Stowe

Abortion trial of Emily Stowe

The abortion trial of Emily Stowe was a famous early Canadian judicial decision on abortion in Canada. The case involved Dr. Emily Stowe, one of Canada's first female doctors. Stowe was acquitted, which was a rare outcome for abortion trials in the nineteenth century.-Background:The case began...

)

External links

• Biography at the Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online
• Archive biography
• The Celebrated Abortion Trial of Dr. Emily Stowe, Toronto, 1879, Constance Backhouse, Canadian Bulletin of Medical History, Volume 8: 1991 / p. 159-87