Careers advice 

Image credit: ‘Lady physicians’ Punch, 23 December 1865, Wellcome Collection 

I didn’t feel there was any pressure and I think, of course, the other problem at that stage was that for women to go into medicine was quite a struggle and if you looked at St Thomas' senior staff at that stage there may have been two women, I mean, so incredibly rare. So my guess is that although I think my father thought I was bright enough and, yeah, it would be good, but did women do medicine? I mean he didn't say that, and he always wanted us to have a good ed- so, I think there was, there was a certain ambivalence about it, but I certainly felt I wasn't pressed into going into medicine in any way.  So it was really only when I began my clinical course at Thomas' that it really hit me, that this was seen as a male enterprise and that women, not only women and general practice were really second-rate things. Please note that the views expressed in these recordings are those of the interviewees, within their historical context, and may not represent RCGP views or policy.