A New York Times Bestseller

“Historian Enss (The Widowed Ones) profiles in this colorful account 10 of the first female physicians on America’s Western frontier. She portrays them as highly determined individuals, whose resolve not only saw them through the medical schools that resisted admitting them, but also through the treatment of recalcitrant patients…Between the brief biographies are insightful notes on topics such as treating influenza, sterilizing patients, and extracting bullets. Readers who enjoyed Campbell Olivia’s Women in White Coats will want to check this out.”

– Publishers Weekly

“A collection of tales about real superhero women and how they won respect.”

– Library Journal

“This is a fascinating read for anyone interested in history, health care, and women’s history.”

– Los Angeles Book Review

“The Doctor Was a Woman: Stories of the First Female Physicians on the Frontier, is another trailblazing effort by the Californian author… From the first page to the last, readers of The Doctor Was a Woman will discover again and again female doctors who did not blanch at the challenges to succeeding in the nearly all male profession of medicine.”

– True West

“The Doctor Was a Woman reads with the drama of fiction and the authority of well-researched nonfiction. It is highly recommended for women's history collections, American history holdings, libraries attractive to medical students and researchers, and general-interest audiences alike. Its powerful stories are sterling examples of early women who succeeded, yet are rarely mentioned in the chronicles of medical or American history.”

– Midwest Book Review

"The Doctor Was a Woman does not burden the reader with comparisons, complexities, density, or extensive narrative but makes its many important points in an easy, direct, entertaining prose. Even these short essays, however, have relevant addendums such as “The Smallpox Scare” and “Nurse Watson’s Medical Recipes.”

– New York Journal of Books

“[A]n inspiring statement for gender equality, while also offering a glimpse into the medical practices of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.”

– Big Sky Journal