Race, gender, and African American women doctors in the twentieth century

This dissertation examines black women medical doctors in the twentieth century. It looks at early life, medical school, postgraduate training and career experiences. It explores professional identity formation, or the process by which black women constructed their identity in relation to career. It asks how women responded to negative prescriptive identities versus positive socialization within their communities and families. It analyzes how African American women doctors faced and overcame obstacles despite having had limited agency, a term I label career negotiation strategies. Finally, it locates the collective identity of all black women doctors and how individuals varied in their experience within that unifying identity.;Using oral histories and other biographical accounts along with archival and printed materials, this dissertation foregrounds the experience of black women physicians. It argues that professional identity formation was a continual process, beginning in early life and continuing throughout career. Identity formation included the tense relationship between self-identity and prescriptive identity. It also argues that in career negotiation strategies, black women physicians operated with limited agency. Finally, it argues that that African American women doctors shared a somewhat cohesive collective identity, even while there were multiple and complex experiences and perceptions within that collective identity. These three arguments are interdependent and are examined concurrently.