After being turned down everywhere else, Elizabeth Blackwell, in 1847, became the first American woman to be accepted into medical school at Geneva College. Her acceptance stemmed not from the fact that she was eminently qualified to study medicine; no, she was allowed entrance because Geneva thought the application was a joke submitted by a rival college, and played along. Blackwell went on to become the first woman in America to earn a medical degree. Women: First & Foremost is full of firsts by women in the areas of medicine, education, literature, and social reform. Hosted by Dee Wallace Stone and Rita Moreno, the series combines interviews with academics, archival footage and stills, and dramatizations to bring the history of American women to life. In the opening volume, women from the medical and literary professions are highlighted. Excerpts from the poetry of Anne Bradstreet and Emily Dickinson are offered, as well as a look at the interrelated stories of Harriet Beecher Stowe (Uncle Tom's Cabin) and Charlotte Perkins Gilman (Herland). In successive volumes, the roles of women in the military and the fields of art and entertainment are examined. Although the series strives for a PBS-style quality, the writing is too workmanlike to really grab the viewer (and the text-like writing leads to text-like reading from Stone and Moreno). Still, there is much here to send the student of women's history (either young or old) off in many different directions. Recommended, with reservations. (R. Pitman)
Women: First & Foremost
(1995) 3 videocassettes, 60 min. each. $29.95 each ($69.95 boxed set). Monterey Home Video. PPR. Color cover. Vol. 11, Issue 2
Women: First & Foremost
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