Au-delà de la maternité sociale : les femmes médecins de Chine du Sud et la redéfinition du modèle professionnel féminin au début du XX ^e siècle

By examining the path taken by the graduates of the Hackett Medical College for Women in Guangzhou, this article reveals that the experience of Chinese women doctors in the early twentieth century goes beyond the model of social motherhood. Although their professional career was framed by gendered norms, which oriented their medical practice towards the field of maternal and child health, as well as towards the private sector, they did not necessarily turn their back on marriage and family to devote themselves to the care of others. Rather, they approached medicine in a way that reconciled their professional and personal aspirations, perhaps even capitalizing on their status as wives and mothers to establish their authority and develop their practice. They have thus reshaped the female professional model supposed to define and justify their presence in the public space and within the medical profession.