Women's College Hospital

Women's College Hospital traces its origins to the Ontario Medical College for Women, founded in Toronto in 1883 after existing medical schools refused to properly admit or fairly treat female medical students, forcing women who wanted to become doctors to organize their own training institution. The college trained generations of women doctors before folding into the University of Toronto's medical school once it began fully admitting women, and its associated hospital, opened in 1911, gave those graduates a place to practice at a time when many hospitals still refused to grant women physicians admitting privileges.

A hospital built around women's health

Women's College Hospital grew through the 20th century into a specialized centre focused on women's health research and care, developing an early reputation for ambulatory and day-surgery care models that other hospitals later adopted more broadly. It remains an active hospital and research institution in Toronto today, with its founding mission — access to medicine for and by women — still central to its identity more than a century later.

Sources

• Women's College Hospital — Our History
• Wikipedia — Women's College Hospital

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