A special and extremely interesting branch of the struggle for hospital positions for women physicians has related to their appointment in the female wards of insane asylums. This movement also originated in Pennsylvania, and in the personal efforts of Dr. Corson, supported, as before, by Dr. Atlee. At the annual meeting of the State Society in 1877, the following preambles and resolution were read:
“Whereas, The State Medical Society has taken a deep interest in the welfare of the insane during the last few years; and
“Whereas, The inmates of our State hospitals are in nearly equal numbers of the sexes; and
“Whereas, We have many female physicians who are eminent practitioners, and one at least[[129]] who has had experience in the medical management of the insane: therefore,
“Resolved, That a committee of three persons be appointed by the president of this society, to report at its next annual meeting on the propriety of having a female physician for the female department of every hospital for the insane, which is under the control of the State.”
A committee was appointed,[[130]] and reported at length in favor of the resolution. Just emphasis was laid on the fact that the very first attempts ever made to reclaim the insane asylums of the State from a condition of utter barbarism were due to a woman, Miss Dorothy Dix, whose name has been a household word in America, as that of Elizabeth Fry in England. The fact that at present there were no women who had received the special training requisite for the scientific treatment for the insane was offset by the other facts, that the existing medical superintendents were charged with the business responsibilities of the asylum, and thus had entirely insufficient time to devote to the medical care of the patients; and that the subordinates, upon whom such care practically devolved, were usually recent graduates, who were entirely destitute of special training, and indeed for whose education in psychiatry no provision anywhere existed.
A bill was drafted, to be presented with a memorial to the Legislature, making the appointment of a female superintendent obligatory in all asylums with female patients. The legislative committee returned the bill to the House with an affirmative recommendation.
A counter memorial was, however, sent to the Senate judiciary committee, protesting against the appointment of a female superintendent as liable to cause clashing in the management of the asylum. The memorial said that assistant female physicians could already be employed wherever deemed expedient. The memorial was so copiously signed as to suggest that much other opposition than that of superintendents, dreading collision, had been marshaled to defeat the proposed law.[[131]]
Another counter thrust, however, was given by the trustees of the State Lunatic Hospital at Harrisburg, who warmly supported the bill. Before the adjournment of the Legislature, the bill was in fact enacted, but so altered that the trustees are not obliged to appoint a woman chief physician, but only empowered to do so. At this same time, a new hospital for the insane was opened at Norristown, not far from Philadelphia; and to this Dr. Alice Bennett, a graduate of the Woman’s Medical College of Philadelphia, was elected by the trustees as chief physician of the female department. Dr. Annie Kugler was appointed assistant. Three months later, in September, 1880, the trustees of the asylum at Harrisburg elected Dr. Margaret Cleaves to a position as assistant.[[132]] Legislative action analogous to that initiated in Pennsylvania was not long afterward taken in Massachusetts and Ohio, and finally, during the current year, 1890, in the State of New York.[[133]]
In New York, the bill required the employment of a woman physician in every State insane asylum where women are confined. It passed with only two negative votes in the Assembly, and three in the Senate.[[134]]