On a winter day in 1902 the newspapers in New York City printed a story that provoked a storm of controversy—for the first time in the history of the United States, a woman was allowed to intern in a hospital, a position that entitled her to practice medicine on equal terms with men. For Emily Barringer, a slender, attractive woman in her mid-twenties, the appointment was the climax to eight years of diligent study and sacrifice. She had no way of knowing that it also marked the beginning of what was to become a trying ordeal.

At eighteen Emily enrolled at Cornell, one of the few schools in the country that permitted women to study medicine. She placed first in competitive examinations at two hospitals but was denied appointments in both of them. Finally she won an appointment to intern at Gouverneur Hospital in New York City.

From the first day the doctors who were her superiors subjected her to severe persecution. They hoped she would quit, proving to everyone that women were unfit for the medical profession. So they gave her the most difficult and humiliating assignments. One of her duties was to answer emergency calls with the ambulance, which meant that she had to cling to the back of a horse-drawn as it sped over the icy streets in New York's toughest district. Crowds gathered and jeered, "Lady doctor, get a man!" Often she worked for forty-eight hours without sleep. She endured this ordeal for two years, and always proved more than equal to the tasks given her.

She became a doctor, beloved by patients and nurses, respected by her colleagues, and at twenty-eight she was officially appointed House Surgeon in charge of the hospital. Now she was free to practice medicine and to marry the man she loved. A devoted wife and mother, Emily Barringer went on to a brilliant career as a gynecologist, winning a great personal triumph for herself and a victory over prejudice against women in the medical profession.

From the dust jacket