America has had women doctors since Elizabeth Blackwell got her medical degree in 1849. Yet by 1910, women made up only 6% of medical doctors, and were mostly limited to serving women and children. In 1917, America was dealing with two supposedly unrelated forces: World War I and the women's suffrage movement. The National American Woman Suffrage Association organized group of American doctors under the title Women’s Oversea Hospitals (WOH), who brought those two forces together when they went to Europe to help in the war effort. Neither the US Army nor the Red Cross would sponsor such a trip, but the French were desperate for medical help and invited them.
These doctors wanted to serve their country and help those suffering from the war, but they also wanted to prove that women should have the right to vote. They also wanted experience in surgery, which was largely restricted at home. The French doctors had little respect for the WOH, and wanted them to only treat women and children. But soon after the first group arrived, the local hospital was inundated with war wounded, and WOH doctors quickly learned how to amputate limbs and dress horrific wounds. They were eventually commissioned into the French military. Even after the Armistice, WOH stayed to care for POWs, refugees, and the wounded. Read about the doctors of WOH, their wartime experience, and their legacy at Smithsonian.