A Dentist and a Gentleman: Gender and the Rise of Dentistry in Ontario

John H. Gryfe is an oral and maxillofacial surgeon practising in
Toronto.

According to the author, the fact that “Ontario dentistry was
established by middle-class white men for middle-class white men” was
paramount in establishing a professional yardstick readily identifiable
by that sector of the public most likely to be attracted to their
services—upper and/or middle-class women. To the dentist striving to
achieve professional status, success meant being recognized as a
gentleman who embodied characteristics of manliness, such as playing the
role of breadwinner, working hard outside the home, and returning at
day’s end to an atmosphere of “comfort and calm, love and
respite.” The 19th-century woman’s role was to raise children and
supervise the household, receiving in return the financial support,
protection, and love of a caring but ultimately authoritative husband.

At the turn of the century, women made up 0.004 percent of the dental
profession in Ontario. Although their numbers had mushroomed to 21
percent by 1996, continuing prejudice, expected total commitment to a
career despite the demands of childbearing, and the assumption of
economic independence have conspired to ensure that “the ideal
practitioner remain middle-class, white and male.”

Gender was central to the process of creating male-dominated
professions in Ontario. Adams, who descends from two earlier generations
of male dental practitioners, decided to study this gender-profession
dichotomy in the context of dentistry because, unlike medicine and law,
it never formally excluded females from its ranks. Scholarly in both
tone and substance, her book is an important addition to the sociologic
literature on professions and their influence on society.