The Australian Women's Register

Constance Stone was not permitted to enrol in the Melbourne Medical School because in the early 1880s, women were excluded from medical studies because the subject matter was deemed inappropriate for co-ed classes. Consequently, in 1884 she travelled to North America , where she was educated at the Women’s Medical College of Pennsylvania, USA and the University of Trinity College, Toronto, Canada (MD, ChM 1888) thus ensuring that she could be registered in Australia. She also studied at the New Hospital for Women, London, qualifying as a licentiate of the Society of Apothecaries in 1889. The first woman to register with the Medical Board of Victoria 1890, she practised one day a week at the free dispensary attached to Dr Singleton’s mission in Collingwood. She founded the Queen Victoria Hospital, where she was assisted by her sister Dr Clara Stone (one of the first women to enter the Melbourne Medical School) and her cousin, Dr Emily Mary Page Stone. She was Foundation member (1895) of the Victorian Medical Women’s Society.

Stone was one of the few early female medical practitioners to marry and have children. Her daughter, Bronwen, also became a doctor.