[5] After teaching at local schools for seven years, her public struggle to achieve equality for women began in 1852, when she applied for admission to Victoria College, Cobourg, Ontario.

[4] Stowe was denied entrance into the Toronto School of Medicine in 1865 and was told by its Vice Principal, "The doors of the University are not open to women and I trust they never will be.

"[6] Unable to study medicine in Canada, Emily Stowe earned her degree in the United States from the homeopathic New York Medical College for Women in 1867.

The same year, she returned to Canada and opened a medical practice in Toronto,[6] on Richmond Street,[4] that specialized in treating women and children.

[5] Stowe gained some local prominence through public lectures on women's health and maintained a steady clientele through newspaper advertisements.

[5] In 1870, the president of the Toronto School of Medicine, Dr. William Thomas Aikins,[7] granted special permission to Stowe and fellow student Jennie Kidd Trout to attend classes, a requirement for medical practitioners with foreign licences.

Faced with hostility from both the male faculty and students, Stowe refused to take the oral and written exams and left the school.

[8] The College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario granted Stowe a licence to practise medicine on July 16, 1880, based on her experience since 1850,[6] Dr. Aikins' willingness to testify for her,[7] and her earlier apprenticeship to Dr. Joseph J.

[10] While studying medicine in New York, Stowe met with Susan B. Anthony and witnessed the divisions within the American women's suffrage movement.

In an episode that may demonstrate the dominance of the latter, Stowe broke the bond of doctor-patient confidentiality by disclosing the abortion request of a patient, Sara Ann Lovell, a domestic servant, to her employer.

In 1896, Emily and her daughter Augusta participated in an all-female "mock parliament," in which the women considered a petition from a male delegation for the right to vote.