Jennie Trout the quintessential feminist and Christian physician left an indelible mark as the first woman to practice medicine after matriculating for her master’s degree in medicine on March 11, 1875 and passing her matriculation exams the same year.
Despite the degrading treatment given to Jennie and Emily Jennings Stowe after they were admitted to study medicine at the University of Toronto, the two women were undeterred. After passing her exams in 1880, Emily became the second woman licensed to practice medicine in Canada.
Jennie Trout Biography
Jennie Kidd Gowanlock was born on April 21, 1841, in the Lumber Mills, Kelso, Scotland. Seven years later, when Jennie was six years old, her family moved to Ellice Township near Stratford, Ontario, Canada in 1847. After high school in the town and her acceptance as an adult to become a member of the Free Church in 1860, Jennie became a public. schoolteacher in Stratford and taught for several years from 1861 to 1865 until she met, courted and married Edward Trout.
Edward once sold advertisements for Toronto Leader and Co-owner of a financial newspaper called the Monetary Times in Toronto with his brother John Malcolm in 1867. Jennie married Edward on August 25, 1865 in Stratford, Upper Canada, took his name family and went to Toronto with him. The couple had adopted children, a boy and a girl. Jennie suffered from nervous disorders and other chronic illnesses; but with a positive electrotherapy result, she was motivated to study medicine.
At that time, women studying science were one of the least acceptable standards in society. However, Jennie and her classmate Emily Jennings Stowe have, by special agreement, secured admission to the University of Toronto for a one-year course. Emily protested the unfair and hostile treatment of men against women at school and refused to take her exams. Feeling bullied and criticized, Jennie left the Toronto School of Medicine when she was called to Woman’s Medical College in Pennsylvania.
Jennie Trout who was at the Woman’s MedicalCollege of Pennsylvania, graduated on March 11, 1875 with an MD, making her the first licensed female physician in Canada. She passed her exams for the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario a month later with ease. She became the first female physician licensed to practice in Canada. Emily Jennings Stowe passed her own examinations in July 1880 and broke the record as the second licensed female doctor.
After graduating, Trout became a medical entrepreneur and a woman philanthropist. She created a therapeutic and electrical institute in Toronto with her friend Emily Amelia Tefft. The society provided treatment services to women using galvanic baths or electricity in Jarvis Street; with 60 patients and 40 of them treated daily.
As a philanthropist, part of Jenniere’s way of giving back to society was to provide a free dispensary to the poor of Toronto for six years. Her business was so successful and she opened branches in Brantford, Ontario and Hamilton.
Life and Death: Everything You Need to Know About Jennie Trout
Jenny as her name was spelled, moved north from Stratford in 1847. Her parents, Elizabeth Kidd Gowanlocks (mother) and Andrew Gowanlocks (father), were loyal followers of the Knox Presbyterian cult and farmers who owned a ten-acre farm cultivating potatoes, turnips and hay.
She made history for being a successful doctor, but unfortunately, Jennie’s chronic illnesses forced her to retire at age 41 (1882) to Palma Sola, Florida. But her lifelong passion to see women become medical doctors inspired by her cause as a feminist and her religion as a devout Christian led her influential financial contribution to the establishment of a medical school for women in Kingston, affiliated with Queen’s University, June 8, 1883. .
There, women filled the majority of council places. As the school’s main benefactor, Jennie has donated $200 to the school for five years. His family then moved to Hollywood, between Florida, his retirement home, and Ontario, where his businesses were located. Jennie Trout died on November 10, 1921 in Los Angeles, California, at the age of 80, while her husband had died 13 years later.
Jennie Trout was a strong proponent of women in medicine, especially in Canada. In 1881, Jennie developed a growing interest in Bible study, foreign missions, and medical affairs: “I hope to live to see the day when every big city (at least) in Ontario will have a good female doctor working in her name”. To commemorate his accomplishments, Canada Post issued a postage stamp in his honor in 1991.