“The Pennsylvania Hospital on Saturday was the scene of an outrage, repetition of which will, we sincerely hope, result in the summary punishment of the offenders,” began an angry article published in Philadelphia’s Evening Bulletin in November 1869.
The offense? A group of female students from the Women’s Medical College of Pennsylvania had gotten permission to attend clinical lectures at the hospital, and male medical students turned out in force to jeer at them.
“These gallant gentlemen assailed the young ladies as they passed, with insolent and offense language, and then followed them into the street, where the whole gang, with the fluency of long practice, joined in insulting these helpless, unprotected women,” the paper seethed…