What If Project By: Haley Steffens

What if women were never admitted into Harvard Medical School, and in turn, into no other medical schools around the world.

"It is very difficult to give clear reasons for the policy of excluding women from the medical degree. There have been several discussions recently on the point and it appears that the present arrangements are not so much the

result of the decision to exclude as it is a failure to discover crucial reasons for changing from

what is, after all, a very old policy." - 1944 letter from Robert Morison, MD

"While I am willing to agree that there are some very able women in medicine, the pro-feminists are apt to overlook the fundamental biological law that the primary function of woman is to

bear and raise children, and the first social duty of woman is to develop and perpetuate the

home." John T. Williams, MD

Dr. Joseph C. Aub writes to Dean Sidney Burwell urging the School and War Committee to

consider admitting women to HMS:"Some time ago I suggested to you and to the War Committee that it would be wise to admit women to the Harvard Medical School in this

emergency. We discussed this at the War Committee meeting and I bring it to your

attention again for one reason. If this proves to be a long war we will have increasing need for

such graduates."

NEW EVENTS

All Men Class of Harvard 1944

Now

In 2013, women are still trying to get equal medical education, however, their attempts are not very successful. There is one Medical School for women, but it is not very esteemed and women are still not allowed into the “men only” conferences. It is a slow moving process towards education equality.