This posting is pushing up against 10,000 words (again!), so we're going with a reminiscence today that's on the shorter side, from reader J.W.H. in Somerville, NJ:
Over the weekend, J.C. in Thủ Dầu Một, Bình Dương asked a question about the best era for a time-traveling woman to visit. And, as part of your answer, you suggested the U.S. from 1941-45, noting: "Women were badly needed to keep the industrial economy going, and so enjoyed freedoms and status, not to mention wages, that would have been unthinkable 10 years earlier."
This took me back to my aunt. She was the first female resident at Lenox Hill Hospital (or at least, that's what my family said), and the next year they took on another female resident, who became her best friend and partner for the rest of their lives.
During the era you named, they had successful medical practices. When the male doctors came back from the war, and they found themselves being pushed aside, they hung up their diplomas and bought a dairy farm in upstate New York. After about a decade, when the milk companies said they would no longer come down to the barn to get the milk, and they needed to bring it up to the road, they decided to sell off the herd. For the rest of their lives, they concentrated on their artwork, even sometimes allowing a fellow artist to live in a van on their 144-acre property. Their area was a bit of an artists' community—they lived down the road from Jose de Creeft, who was responsible for the "Alice in Wonderland" sculpture in Central Park my wife used to climb on as a little girl growing up in the city.
For all occasions, I would receive cards with scribbled drawings on them, and loved visiting their farm. They were warm and welcoming women, and definitely lived life on their own terms!
Thanks, J.W.H. (Z)