A Pioneer Woman Doctor's Life

A friend once said to her, 'If I wished to increase your height two and a half inches, I would attempt to press you down, and you would grow upward from sheer resentment.' Divorced at eighteen from an abusive husband in 1859 (scandalous at the time), and with a little baby to care for, Bethenia Angelina Owens was determined to make her way in the world. Her family begged her to let them support her but she wanted to earn her own livelihood.Taking in laundry, teaching school, and making cheese were among the tasks she set herself to. She eventually built a thriving business as a milliner that allowed her to send her son to college and to fulfill her own dream of becoming a doctor.Against all odds and a tidal wave of objections by friends, family, and male doctors, she prevailed. Despite the sentiment of the times that it was disgraceful for a woman to practice medicine, she enrolled in 1878 at the University of Michigan.By 1884, she was making $7,000 per year, an astronomical sum, as a physician. For all of her life she was a strong and vocal advocate of women's rights.As a doctor, she gave the shocking advice, "Nothing will preserve woman's grace and her symmetrical form so much as vigorous and systematic exercise, and horseback riding stands at the head of the list, providing she has a foot in each stirrup, instead of having the right limb twisted around a horn."She also provides accounts of other pioneer women of her acquaintance.

• | Author: Bethenia Angelina Owens-Adair
• | Publisher: Independently Published
• | Publication Date: Oct 28, 2016
• | Number of Pages: 486 pages
• | Binding: Paperback or Softback
• | ISBN-10: 1519036388
• | ISBN-13: 9781519036384