Supermen and Women, Not Pygmies

When I finally announced that I was going to become a doctor it broke the heart of all my friends and I was publicly disgraced. Women that I had known for years drew their skirts aside and went by on the other side of the street; men refused to bow to me, and friendless and alone, I started by stage for San Francisco on my way to Philadelphia.” Bethenia Owens-Adair’s life was filled with controversy—some of it admirable, some of it questionable. She dared buck the norms of her day as a