Book Summary and Reviews of The Unlocked Path by Janis Robinson Daly

The Unlocked Path by Janis Robinson Daly

The Unlocked Path

A Novel (The Path)

by Janis Robinson Daly

  • Published:
  • Aug 2022, 345 pages
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About this book

Book Summary

The Unlocked Path presents and embraces a "New Woman" of the early 20th century: educated, career-minded, independent.

In 1897 Philadelphia, after witnessing her aunt's suicide, Eliza Edwards vows to find ways to help and heal. Rejecting her mother's wishes for her society debut, Eliza enters medical college at a time when only five percent of doctors are female. With the support of a circle of women and driven by a determination to conquer curriculum demands, battle sexism, and overcome doubts, Eliza charts a new life course. Combining science and sympathy, can she triumph to heal others and herself?

Please be aware that this discussion guide will contain spoilers!
  1. The Female Medical College of Pennsylvania opened in 1850 (changed to Woman's Medical in 1867) to become the first medical school to award accredited degrees to women. Over the next forty years, the Seven Sisters schools (Mount Holyoke, Wellesley, Bryn Mawr, Barnard, Smith, Vassar, Radcliffe) and many other colleges opened their doors to provide women with access to higher learning. By the 1960s there were 281 women's colleges. Because of societal and financial demands, by 2018, most had closed their doors or merged into co-educational institutions. The Woman's Medical College (WMC) merged with Drexel University in 2001. Today, approximately thirty-one active women's colleges remain. Are single-sex schools still relevant today? What ...
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Reviews

Media Reviews

"An often riveting fictional testament of a doctor's life at the turn of the 20th century." —Kirkus Reviews

"People looking for a touching story about a woman seeking a professional life in a time when that was not widely accepted will be delighted by Daly's novel." —Manhattan Book Review

"In The Unlocked Path, Janis Robinson Daly movingly depicts the monumental struggles early women physicians faced, and the much-needed niche they filled. Meticulously researching a fascinating era in our history and creating an engaging narrator to guide us through it, Janis Robinson Daly has delivered a winner." —Sally Cabot Gunning, author of The Widow's War and Painting the Light

"Eliza Edwards chooses an unconventional path. Choosing to ignore high society and commit to medical school, she must possess an unwavering belief in herself. She decides that to succeed, she must change the system. Eliza will win you over with her quiet strength and kind heart." —Kerry Chaput, author of Daughter of the King

This information about The Unlocked Path was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

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More Information

Intrigued by the discovery that an ancestor was a founder of the Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania, Janis Robinson Daly found her next career direction: unearthing the stories of women whose lives have remained in the shadows. With a love of history, she balances a need for authenticity and details with a fictional flair to create deeper emotional connections to characters than what biographies provide. A graduate of Wheaton College, MA, with a B.A. in Psychology, Daly explores female-centric issues and the power of supportive relationships developed among women. Daly, her husband, and rescue pup reside on Cape Cod, MA.

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