March 26, 1878: The Association for the Advancement of the Medical Education of Women, a new organization seeking to increase the quality of education women physicians receive, got an encouragingly large turnout for a public meeting earlier this evening.
As of the most recent U.S. Census in 1870, there were only 525 women physicians in the country, with just 137 enrolled in medical schools at the time.
Though both figures have undoubtedly increased in the past eight years, and there are clear signs of progress, such as Dr. Sarah Hackett Stevenson becoming the first woman admitted to the American Medical Association two years ago, women physicians are still too few in number and have too little influence in the profession.
According to former Representative Robert B. Roosevelt, Democrat of New York, one of the reasons women physicians are…