Podbit · Empire: World History
When Princess Bamba arrived in San Francisco in 1900, reporters were waiting for a charming Indian royal. What they got was a small, dark, unsmiling woman who screamed at them to leave her dogs alone. She had a Great Dane and a Russian Wolfhound whose name she refused to divulge.
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At 12:52 · chapter starts 12:40
Unable to study in Britain and barred from India by the authorities who feared a Duleep Singh on the loose in Punjab, Bamba's only realistic option was America — the one English-speaking country where a woman could genuinely obtain a medical degree. On 30 January 1900 she boarded the König Albert, a German ocean liner, headed for San Francisco via Japan. American reporters, primed for an exotic Indian royal, got something very different: a small, unsmiling woman who screamed at them to leave her dogs alone — a Great Dane named Leon and a Russian Wolfhound whose name she refused to divulge. [1] — Anita Arundhati "When Princess Bamba arrived in San Francisco in 1900, reporters were waiting for a charming Indian royal. What they got was a small, dark, …" 12:52 In Chicago, she walked to the Women's Medical College daily through unpaved, frozen streets, pelted with snow by locals, and wrote furiously to the press: 'Such things would never be permitted in England.' She was one of very few non-white women in US medicine in 1901, in a country with fewer than 1,000 medical students in total. She endured nearly three years of this. Then, in the summer of 1902, Northwestern University's trustees ruled — with the direct quote Anita cites — that 'women cannot grasp surgery,' and revoked the possibility of female medical qualifications entirely. [2] — Anita Arundhati "In 1901, Princess Bamba was attending the Women's Medical College in Chicago — one of fewer than 1,000 medical students in all of America a…" 14:00 Bamba had completed her coursework. It was taken from her.
In 1901, Princess Bamba was attending the Women's Medical College in Chicago — one of fewer than 1,000 medical students in all of America and among the very few non-white women in US medicine. She finished her coursework, then Northwestern's trustees declared 'women cannot grasp surgery' and revoked her qualification.
Bamba was among fewer than 1,000 medical students in the entire United States in 1901, and one of very few non-white women in American medicine.
In the summer of 1902, Northwestern University trustees ruled that women could not become doctors, stripping Bamba of her qualification after she completed her coursework.
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