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    Changing the Pattern: The Story of Emily Stowe
    Changing the Pattern: The Story of Emily Stowe
    Changing the Pattern: The Story of Emily Stowe
    Ebook134 pages11 hours

    Changing the Pattern: The Story of Emily Stowe

    By Sydell Waxman

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    About this ebook

    When Emily Stowe was born in Ontario in 1831, every girl’s life followed a set pattern. Regardless of her personality, intelligence, capabilities or creativity, her future was limited to housework and childcare. Emily Stowe was determined to change that pattern. Sydell Waxman, a writer, researcher and lecturer on women of the 1800s, tells of the events in the life of the young Emily Stowe which caused her to become, not only the first woman school principal and the first woman to practise medicine in Canada, but a pioneer in the fight for women’s rights. With the help of original sketches and archival material, Changing the Pattern also creates a vivid picture of Canada in the late 1800s as it follows Emily’s crusade to create new patterns for girls’ lives.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherDundurn
    Release dateFeb 1, 1998
    ISBN9781459726314
    Changing the Pattern: The Story of Emily Stowe
    Author

    Sydell Waxman

    Sydell Waxman's eclectic career has encompassed work as an historical researcher, school librarian, museum lecturer, entrepreneur and writer. Her first book Changing the Pattern: The Story of Emily Stowe the biography of Canada’s first female physician Emily Stowe, was selected for the Our Choice seal from the CCBC and won the Toronto Heritage Award in 1998.

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      Book preview

      Changing the Pattern - Sydell Waxman

      Credits

      The Same Pattern

      When Emily Howard Jennings was born in 1831, girls’ lives followed a set pattern. Some girls secretly dreamed of becoming doctors or lawyers. Others just wished for a good education. Their dreams remained empty wishes, unlikely to come true. In the Victorian age, every girl’s future was limited to housework and child care.

      Quilt-making gave women the rare opportunity to make choices. They picked from a rainbow of colours and threads, creating their own unique patterns.

      Emily struggled to make women’s lives more like quilting, something they themselves designed and directed.

      Despite extreme opposition, Emily Stowe became the first woman school principal and the first woman to practise medicine in Canada. As a leader, a speaker and a fighter for women’s rights, she gradually changed laws and attitudes.

      How did she do it?

      QUILT-MAKING

      Quilt-making was women’s work. Women gathered together at quilting bees to share stories and sewing decisions. They worked together on one large quilt or on a sampler quilt which was arranged in block form, piece by piece.

      A New Dream

      Little Emily often dreamed about becoming a doctor. She watched as her mother Hannah and other Quaker women prepared medicine for their families. When she was old enough, she applied to the Toronto School of Medicine.

      Emily’s application shocked the University Senate. All doctors at that time were men. Since a woman had never applied for medical courses, the Senate didn’t know what to do. Her papers were sent to John McCaul, President of the University of Toronto. McCaul was annoyed with Emily, but agreed to discuss her application.

      As Emily guided her horse and carriage to the front of the huge university building, her heart kept pace with the heavy clopping of her horse’s hooves. Could the men on the Senate do something that had never been done before? Would they accept a woman into the university?

      In his office, McCaul spoke sternly. Her case, he said, had been debated for a long time. The Senate had reached a decision. Women were not allowed.

      Emily breathed quickly. This was unfair. Why? she asked. McCaul answered that boys were used to studying with other boys. Girls belonged at home.

      THE VICTORIAN AGE

      Victoria was Queen of Britain from 1837–1901. During this period, called the Victorian age, there were strict rules about what a woman could and could not do. Most girls didn’t even go to school. If her parents were rich, she went to a private school where she learned things like painting, piano playing and needlepoint.

      The Promise

      Emily was a short woman, but she jolted upright and stood stiffly before this powerful man. Your Senate may refuse to admit women now, but the day will come when these doors will swing wide open to every female who chooses to apply.

      McCaul was not impressed with Emily’s boldness. Never in my day, Madam. The doors of the University are not open to women and I trust they never will be.

      Emily vowed, Then I will make it the business of my life to see that they will be opened, that women may have the same opportunities as men.

      Emily never forgot this promise. But before she could change the lives of all Canadian girls, she had to struggle to change her own future, by adding pattern pieces to her own life.

      Where did she get the courage?

      DR. JAMES MIRANDA STUART BARRY

      There was one female doctor in Canada before Emily. For 46 years, Miranda Barry dressed as a man and called herself James Barry. When she was Inspector-General of Military Hospitals in Canada from 1857-1861 no one guessed she was a woman. Her secret was discovered after she died and her body was being prepared for burial. Many people told Emily to copy

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