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." 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, on Richmond Street. Stowe gained some local prominence through public lectures on women's health and maintained a steady clientele through newspaper advertisements. When Stowe returned to Canada in 1867 and opened a medical practice on Richmond Street in Toronto, she specialized in treating diseases of women and children.