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# Long description

Figure 2 The caption to this cartoon, entitled The Coming Race, reads: ‘Doctor Evangeline: “By the bye, Mr Sawyer, are you engaged tomorrow afternoon? I have rather a ticklish operation to perform – an amputation, you know.” Mr Sawyer: “I shall be very happy to do it for you.” Doctor Evangeline: “O, no, not that! But will you kindly come and administer the chloroform for me?”’ The humour rests on the way the cartoon turns on its head the stereotype of the helpless woman and strong man. It portrays a ‘comic’ situation – where a fashionably dressed, small female doctor claims greater surgical competence than a man. At the same time, it accurately captures the way doctors did ask each other for help in administering anaesthetics. The cartoonist reflects the ambiguous views held of women doctors. In the 1870s, when only a few women were training as practitioners, they were depicted as small, elaborately dressed feminine figures. By 1900, when a small number of women were practising successfully, a more ‘mannish’ stereotype emerged, wearing a plain skirt and masculine jacket. She was often the butt of the joke.