The battles that women had to fight to enter the medical profession have been well-documented by historians. A Painful Inch to Gain takes a more personal approach, focusing on the stories of individual women medical students. Drawing as far as possible on their own words, Eileen Crofton (who herself qualified as a doctor during the Second World War) looks at what made these young women want to pursue a career in medicine in the first place. They knew they faced considerable obstacles. In the face of male hostility, how could they ensure that they got as thorough a medical training as the men? And how could they pay for this training, let alone feed and clothe themselves? With no role models, how were they to conduct themselves? What should they wear? How were they to balance the demands of their profession with their expectations of love and marriage? Finally, having qualified as doctors, what was to be their role in their chosen profession?