Women Doctors in War (Volume 128) (Williams-Ford Texas A&M University Military History Series)

## I n piecing together the service of women doctors in various wars, we received generous help from a number of sources and individuals. Indeed, the assistance of colleagues, friends, researchers and professionals in the military, archival, and library fi elds was of invaluable help in the course of researching and writing this book. Rather than thank a host of people individually, we ask readers to consult the bibliography, where we have listed the various libraries and collections across the country that we consulted. People there are a credit to their professions and their respective institutions. Yet we owe special thanks to several institutions and individuals for lending us their help to document these women. At Drexel University College of Medicine in Philadelphia (DUCM), the director of archives and special collections, Joanne Grossman, and the archivist, Barbara Williams, were of inestimable help in supplying biographical materials on women doctors from the Civil War through World War II. At the U.S. Army Military History Institute, Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania, archivist Melissa Wiford was of great assistance in gathering World War II materials regarding women doctors in the army and in answering specifi c questions about the Margaret Craighill Collection. Our thanks to the Bureau of Medicine (BUMED), the U.S. Navy, for supplying materials about and pictures of navy women. In particular, we would like to thank Andre B. Sobocinski, deputy historian/ publications manager, Offi ce of the Historian, for reading and making comments on the chapter about women doctors in the navy. In Their Efforts To Utilize Their Medical Skills And Training In The Service Of Their Country, Women Physicians Fought Not One But Two Male-dominated Professional Hierarchies: The Medical And The Military Establishments. In The Process, They Also Contended With Powerful Social Pressures And Constraints. Throughout Women Doctors In War, Authors Judith Bellafaire And Mercedes Graf Focus On The Medical Careers, Aspirations, And Struggles Of Individual Women, Using Personal Stories To Illustrate The Unique Professional And Personal Challenges Female Military Physicians Have Faced. Military And Medical Historians And Scholars In Women's Studies Will Discover A Wealth Of New Information In This Book. Introduction -- Hen Medics : Women Physicians In The Civil War And The Spanish-american War -- Necessity's Handmaidens : The Army's Women Contract Surgeons Of World War I -- Finding A Place In The Sun : Women Army Doctors In World War Ii -- Join The Navy And See The World : Women Navy Doctors In World War Ii -- Out Of Place : Women Military Doctors In Cold War America -- On The Edge Of Equality : Contemporary Women Military Physicians -- Epilogue. Judith Bellafaire And Mercedes Herrera Graf. Includes Bibliographical References (p. [233]-243) And Index. In their efforts to utilize their medical skills and training in the service of their country, women physicians fought not one but two male-dominated professional hierarchies: the medical and the military establishments. In the process, they also contended with powerful social pressures and constraints. Throughout Women Doctors in War , the authors focus on the medical careers, aspirations, and struggles of individual women, using personal stories to illustrate the unique professional and personal challenges female military physicians have faced. Military and medical historians and scholars in women's studies will discover a wealth of new information in Women Doctors in War .