First Women To Practice Medicine

The presence of women in medicine, particularly in the practicing fields of surgery and as physicians, has been traced to the earliest of history. Women have historically had lower participation levels in medical fields compared to men with occupancy rates varying by race, socioeconomic status, and geography.

Women's informal practice of medicine in roles such as caregivers, or as allied health professionals, has been widespread. Since the start of the 20th century, most countries of the world provide women with access to medical education. Not all countries ensure equal employment opportunities, and gender equality has yet to be achieved within medical specialties and around the world.

History

Ancient medicine

The involvement of women in the field of medicine has been recorded in several early civilizations. An Egyptian of the Old Kingdom of Egypt, Peseshet, described in an inscription as "lady overseer of the female physicians", is the earliest woman named in the history of science. Ubartum lived around 2050 BC in Mesopotamia and came from a family of several physicians. Agamede was cited by Homer as a healer in ancient Greece before the Trojan War. Agnodice was the first female physician to practice legally in 4th century BC Athens. Metrodora was a physician and generally regarded as the first female medical writer. Her book, ''On the Diseases and Cures of Women'', was the oldest medical book written by a female and was referenced by many other female physicians. She credited much of her writings to the ideologies of Hippocrates.

Medieval Europe

During the Middle Ages, convents were a centralized place of education for women, and some of these communities provided opportunities for women to contribute to scholarly research. An example is the German abbess Hildegard of Bingen, whose prolific writings include treatments of various scientific subjects, including medicine, botany and natural history (–58). She is considered Germany's first female physician.

Women in the Middle Ages participated in healing techniques and several capacities in medicine and medical education. Women occupied select ranks of medical personnel during the period. They worked as herbalists, midwives, surgeons, barber-surgeons, nurses, and traditional empirics. Women healers treated most patients, not limiting themselves to treating solely women. The names of 24 women described as surgeons in Naples, Italy between 1273 and 1410 have been recorded, and references have been found to 15 women practitioners, most of them Jewish and none described as midwives, in Frankfurt, Germany between 1387 and 1497.

Women also engaged in midwifery and healing arts without having their activities recorded in written records, and practiced in rural areas or where there was little access to medical care. Society in the Middle Ages limited women's role as physician. Once universities established faculties of medicine during the thirteenth century, women were excluded from advanced medical education. Licensure began to require clerical vows for which women were ineligible, and healing as a profession became male-dominated.

In many occasions, women had to fight against accusation of illegal practice done by males, putting into question their motives. If they were not accused of malpractice, then women were considered "witches" by both clerical and civil authorities. Surgeons and barber-surgeons were often organized into guilds, they could hold out longer against the pressures of licensure. Like other guilds, a number of the barber-surgeon guilds allowed the daughters and wives of their members to take up membership in the guild, generally after the man's death. Katherine la surgiene of London, daughter of Thomas the surgeon and sister of William the Surgeon belonged to a guild in 1286. Documentation of female members in the guilds of Lincoln, Norwich, Dublin and York continue until late in the period.

Midwives, those who assisted pregnant women through childbirth and some aftercare, included only women. Midwives constituted roughly one third of female medical practitioners. Men did not involve themselves in women's medical care; women did not involve themselves in men's health care. The southern Italian coastal town of Salerno was a center of medical education and practice in the 12th century. In Salerno the physician Trota of Salerno compiled a number of her medical practices in several written collections. One work on women's medicine that was associated with her, the ''De curis mulierum'' ("On Treatments for Women") formed the core of what came to be known as the ''Trotula'' ensemble, a compendium of three texts that circulated throughout medieval Europe. Trota herself gained a reputation that spread as far as France and England. There are also references in the writings of other Salernitan physicians to the ''mulieres Salernitane'' ("Salernitan women"), which give some idea of local empirical practices.

Dorotea Bucca, an Italian physician, was chair of philosophy and medicine at the University of Bologna for over forty years from 1390.Brooklyn Museum: Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art: The Dinner Party: Heritage Floor: Dorotea Bucca
(accessed 22 August 2007) Other Italian women whose contributions in medicine have been recorded include Abella, Jacqueline Felice de Almania, Alessandra Giliani, Rebecca de Guarna, Margarita, Mercuriade (14th century), Constance Calenda, Clarice di Durisio (15th century), Constanza, Maria Incarnata and Thomasia de Mattio.Howard S. ''The Hidden Giants'', p. 35, (Lulu.com; 2006)
(accessed 22 August 2007)

Medieval Islamic world

For the medieval Islamic world, little information is known about female medical practitioners although it is likely that women were regularly involved in medical practice in some capacity. Male medical writers refer to the presence of female practitioners (a ''ṭabība'') in describing certain procedures or situations. The late-10th to early-11th century Andalusi physician and surgeon al-Zahrawi wrote that certain medical procedures were difficult for male doctors practicing on female patients because of the need to touch the genitalia. The male practitioner was required to either find a female doctor who could perform the procedure, or a eunuch physician, or a midwife who took instruction from the male surgeon. The existence of female practitioners can be inferred, albeit not explicitly, through direct evidence.Monica H. Green, "History of Science," ''Encyclopedia of Women and Islamic Cultures''. Volume I: ''Methodologies, Paradigms and Sources'', Suad Joseph, general editor (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 2003), pp. 358–361; Peter Pormann, "Female Patients and Practitioners in Medieval Islam," ''The Lancet'' 373 (9 May 2009), pp. 1598–1599. Midwives played a prominent role in the delivery of women's healthcare. For these practitioners, there is more detailed information, both in terms of the prestige of their craft (ibn Khaldun calls it a noble craft, "something necessary in civilization") and in terms of biographical information on historic women. To date, no known medical treatise written by a woman in the medieval Islamic world has been identified.

Western medicine in China

Traditional Chinese medicine based on the use of herbal medicine, acupuncture, massage and other forms of therapy has been practiced in China for thousands of years. Western medicine was introduced to China in the 19th Century, mainly by medical missionaries sent from various Christian mission organizations, such as the London Missionary Society (Britain), the Methodist Church (Britain) and the Presbyterian Church (US). Benjamin Hobson (1816–1873), a medical missionary sent by the London Missionary Society in 1839, set up the Wai Ai Clinic (惠愛醫館) in Guangzhou, China. The Hong Kong College of Medicine for Chinese (香港華人西醫書院) was founded in 1887 by the London Missionary Society, with its first graduate (in 1892) being Sun Yat-sen (孫中山).

Due to the social custom that men and women should not be near to one another, Chinese women were reluctant to be treated by Western male doctors. This resulted in a need for female doctors. One of these was Sigourney Trask of the Methodist Episcopal Church, who set-up a hospital in Fuzhou during the mid-19th century. Trask also arranged for a local girl, Hü King Eng, to study medicine at Ohio Wesleyan Female College, with the intention that Hü would return to practise western medicine in Fuzhou. After graduation, Hü became the resident physician at Fuzhou's Woolston Memorial Hospital in 1899 and trained several female physicians. Another female medical missionary Mary H. Fulton (1854–1927) was sent by the Foreign Missions Board of the Presbyterian Church (US) to found the first medical college for women in China. Known as the Hackett Medical College for Women (夏葛女子醫學院), this college was located in Guangzhou, China, and was enabled by a large donation from Edward A. K. Hackett (1851–1916) of Indiana. The college was dedicated in 1902 and offered a four-year curriculum. By 1915, there were more than 60 students, mostly in residence. Most students became Christians, due to the influence of Fulton. The college was aimed at the spreading of Christianity and modern medicine and the elevation of Chinese women's social status. The graduates of this college included Chau Lee-sun (周理信, 1890–1979) and Wong Yuen-hing (黃婉卿), both of whom graduated in the late 1910s and then practiced medicine in the hospitals in Guangdong province.

Midwifery in 18th century America

Out of the different occupations women took on around this time, midwifery was one of the highest-paying industries. In the 18th century, households tended to have an abundance of children largely in part to having hired help and diminished mortality rates. Despite the high chance of complications in labor, American midwife Martha Ballard, specifically, had high success rates in delivering healthy babies to healthy mothers.

Women's health movement, 1970s

The 1970s marked an increase of women entering and graduating from medical school in the United States. From 1930 to 1970, a period of 40 years, around 14,000 women graduated from medical school. From 1970 to 1980, a period of 10 years, over 20,000 women graduated from medical school.Paludi, Michele A. and Gertrude A. Streuernage, ed., Foundations for a Feminist Restructuring of the Academic Disciplines (New York: Harrington Park Press, 1990), p. 236. This increase of women in the medical field was due to both political and cultural changes. Two laws in the U.S. lifted restrictions for women in the medical field – Title IX of the Higher Education Act Amendments of 1972 and the Public Health Service Act of 1975, banning discrimination on grounds of gender. In November 1970, the Assembly of the Association of American Medical Colleges rallied for equal rights in the medical field.

Throughout the decade women's ideas about themselves and their relation to the medical field were shifting due to the women's feminist movement. A sharp increase of women in the medical field led to developments in doctor-patient relationships, changes in terminology and theory. One area of medical practice that was challenged and changed was gynecology.Kline, Wendy. ''Bodies of Knowledge: Sexuality, Reproduction, and Women's Health in the Second Wave'' (University of Chicago Press, 2010). Author Wendy Kline noted that "to ensure that young brides were ready for the wedding night, octorsused the pelvic exam as a form of sex instruction."

With higher numbers of women enrolled in medical school, medical practices like gynecology were challenged and subsequently altered. In 1972, the University of Iowa Medical School instituted a new training program for pelvic and breast examinations. Students would act both as the doctor and the patient, allowing each student to understand the procedure and create a more gentle, respectful examination. With changes in ideologies and practices throughout the 70s, by 1980 over 75 schools had adopted this new method.Paludi and Streuernage, ''Foundations for a Feminist Restructuring of the Academic Disciplines'', p. 241.

Along with women entering the medical field and feminist rights movement, came along the women's health movement which sought alternative methods of health care for women. This came through the creation of self-help books, most notably '' Our Bodies, Ourselves: A Book by and for Women''.Boston Women's Health Book Collective Staff, ''Our Bodies, Ourselves: A Book by and for Women'' (Boston: Simon and Schuster Trade, 1976). This book gave women a "manual" to help understand their body. It challenged hospital treatment, and doctors' practices. Aside from self-help books, many help centres were opened: birth centres run by midwives, safe abortion centres, and classes for educating women on their bodies, all with the aim of providing non-judgmental care for women.Schulman, Bruce J. The Seventies: The Great Shift in American Culture, Society, and politics. (Da Capo Press, 2002), p. 174. The women's health movement, along with women involved in the medical field, opened the doors for research and awareness for female illness like breast cancer and cervical cancer.

Scholars in the history of medicine had developed some study of women in the field—biographies of pioneering women physicians were common prior to the 1960s—and study of women in medicine took particular root with the advent of the women's movement in the 1960s, and in conjunction with the women's health movement.

Modern medicine

In 1540, Henry VIII of England granted the charter for the Company of Barber-Surgeons; while this led to the specialization of healthcare professions (i.e. surgeons and barbers), women were barred from professional practice.The History of Women in Surgery, by Debrah A. Wirtzfeld, MD Women did continue to practice during this time without formal training or recognition in England and eventually North America for the next several centuries.

Women's participation in the medical professions was generally limited by legal and social practices during the decades while medicine was professionalizing.See generally Barbara Ehrenreich & Deirdre English, ''Witches, Midwives, and Nurses'' (1973). Women openly practiced medicine in the allied health professions (nursing, midwifery, etc.), and throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, women made significant gains in access to medical education and medical work through much of the world. These gains were sometimes tempered by setbacks; for instance, Mary Roth Walsh documented a ''decline'' in women physicians in the US in the first half of the twentieth century, such that there were fewer women physicians in 1950 than there were in 1900.Walsh, 1977. Through the latter half of the twentieth century, women made gains generally across the board. In the United States, for instance, women were 9% of total US medical school enrollment in 1969; this had increased to 20% in 1976. By 1985, women constituted 16% of practicing American physicians.Morantz-Sanchez, Preface.

At the beginning of the 21st-century in industrialized nations, women have made significant gains, but have yet to achieve parity throughout the medical profession. Women have achieved parity in medical school in some industrialized countries, since 2003 forming the majority of the United States medical school applicants. In 2007–2008, women accounted for 49% of medical school applicants and 48.3% of those accepted. According to the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) 48.4% (8,396) of medical degrees awarded in the US in 2010–2011 were earned by women, an increase from 26.8% in 1982–1983. While more women are taking part in the medical field, a 2013–2014 study reported that there are significantly fewer women in leadership positions within the academic realm of medicine. This study found that women accounted for 16% of deans, 21% of the professors, and 38% of faculty, as compared to their male counterparts.

The practice of medicine remains disproportionately male overall. In industrialized nations, the recent parity in gender of medical students has not yet trickled into parity in practice. In many developing nations, neither medical school nor practice approach gender parity. Moreover, there are skews within the medical profession: some medical specialties, such as surgery, are significantly male-dominated, while other specialties are significantly female-dominated, or are becoming so. For example, in the United States, female physicians outnumber male physicians in pediatrics and female residents outnumber male residents in family medicine, obstetrics and gynecology, pathology, and psychiatry. In several different areas of medicine (general practice, medical specialties, surgical specialties) and in various roles, medical professionals tend to overestimate women’s true representation, and this correlates with a decreased willingness to support gender-based initiatives among men, impeding further progress towards gender parity.

Women continue to dominate in nursing. In 2000, 94.6% of registered nurses in the United States were women. In health care professions as a whole in the US, women numbered approximately 14.8 million, as of 2011.

Biomedical research and academic medical professions—i.e., faculty at medical schools—are also disproportionately male. Research on this issue, called the "leaky pipeline" by the National Institutes of Health and other researchers, shows that while women have achieved parity with men in entering graduate school, a variety of discrimination causes them to drop out at each stage in the academic pipeline: graduate school, postdoc, faculty positions, achieving tenure; and, ultimately, in receiving recognition for groundbreaking work.

Glass ceiling

The "glass ceiling" is a metaphor to convey the undefined obstacles that women and minorities face in the workplace. Female physicians of the late 19th-century faced discrimination in many forms due to the prevailing Victorian Era attitude that the ideal woman be demure, display a gentle demeanor, act submissively, and enjoy a perceived form of power that should be exercised over and from within the home. Medical degrees were difficult for women to earn, and once practicing, discrimination from landlords for medical offices, left female physicians to set up their practices on "Scab Row" or "bachelor's apartments."

The ''Journal of Women's Health'' surveyed physician mothers and their physician daughters in order to analyze the effect that discrimination and harassment have on the individual and their career. This study included 84% of physician mothers that graduated medical school prior to 1970, with the majority of these physicians graduating in the 1950s and 1960s. The authors of this study stated that discrimination in the medical field persisted after the title VII discrimination legislation was passed in 1965. This was the case until 1970, when the National Organization for Women (NOW) filed a class action lawsuit against all medical schools in the United States. By 1975, the number of women in medicine had nearly tripled, and has continued to grow. By 2005, more than 25% of physicians and around 50% of medical school students were women. The increase of women in medicine also came with an increase of women identifying as a racial/ethnic minority, yet this population is still largely underrepresented in comparison to the general population of the medical field.

Within this specific study, 22% of physician mothers and 24% of physician daughters identified themselves as being an ethnic minority. These women reported experiencing instances of exclusion from career opportunities as a result of their race and gender. According to this article, females tend to have lessened confidence in their abilities as a doctor, yet their performance is equivalent to that of their male counterparts. This study also commented on the impact of power dynamics within medical school, which is established as a hierarchy that ultimately shapes the educational experience. Instances of sexual harassment attribute to the high attrition rates of females in the STEM fields.

Competition between midwifery and obstetrics

A shift from women midwifery to male obstetrics occurs in the growth of medical practices such as the founding of the American Medical Association. Instead of assisting labor in the basis of an emergency, doctors took over the delivery of babies completely; putting midwifery second. This is an example of the growing sense of competition between male physicians and female midwives as a rise in obstetrics took hold. The education of women on the basis of midwifery was stunted by both physicians and public-health reformers, driving midwifery to be seen as out of practice. Societal roles also played a fact in the downfall of the practice in midwifery because women were unable to obtain the education needed for licensing and once married, women were to embrace a domestic lifestyle. In 2018, there were 11,826 certified nurse midwives (CNMs). In 2019 there were 42,720 active physicians in Obstetrics and Gynecology.

Outside of the United States, midwifery is still practiced in several countries such as in Africa. The first school of midwives in Africa was supposedly founded by Dr. Ernst Rodenwalt in Togo in 1912. In comparison, The Juba College of Nursing and Midwifery in South Sudan (a country that gained its independence in 2011) graduated its first class of students in 2013.

Women's contributions to medicine

Historical women's medical schools

When women were routinely forbidden from medical school, they sought to form their own medical schools.
* New England Female Medical College, Boston, founded in 1848.
* Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania (founded 1850 as Female Medical College of Pennsylvania)
* London School of Medicine for Women (founded 1874 by Sophia Jex-Blake)
* Edinburgh School of Medicine for Women (founded 1886 by Sophia Jex-Blake)
* First Pavlov State Medical University of St. Petersburg (founded 1897 as Female Medical University)
* Tokyo Women's Medical University (founded 1900 by Yoshioka Yayoi)
* Hackett Medical College for Women, Guangzhou, China, founded in 1902 by Presbyterian Church (USA).

Historical hospitals with significant female involvement

* Woman's Hospital of Philadelphia, founded in 1861, provided clinical experience for Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania students
* New England Hospital for Women and Children (now called Dimock Community Health Center), founded in 1862 by women doctors "for the exclusive use of women and children"
* New Hospital for Women (founded in the 1870s by Elizabeth Garrett Anderson and run largely by women, for women)
* South London Hospital for Women and Children (founded 1912 by Eleanor Davies-Colley and Maud Chadburn; closed 1984; employed an all-woman staff)

Pioneering women in early modern medicine

18th century

* Madeleine-Françoise Calais ( – ''fl.'' 1740) was a pioneer who is referred to as the first female dentist in France.
* Dorothea Erxleben (1715–1762) was the first female doctor in Germany and the first woman worldwide to be granted an MD by a university.
* Salomée Halpir (1718 – after 1763) was a Polish medic and oculist who is often referred to as the first female doctor from the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.

19th century

* Lovisa Årberg (1801–1881) was the first female doctor and surgeon in Sweden; whereas, Amalia Assur (1803–1889) was the first female dentist in Sweden and possibly Europe.
* Marie Durocher (1809–1893) was a Brazilian obstetrician, midwife and physician. She is considered the first female doctor in Brazil and the Americas.
* Ann Preston (1813–1872) was the first female to become the dean of a medical school Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania (WMCP)">nowiki/> Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania (WMCP)in 1866.
* Elizabeth Blackwell (1821–1910), who was England-born, was the first woman to graduate from medical school in the United States. She obtained her MD in 1849 from Geneva College, New York.
* Rebecca Lee Crumpler, (1831–1895) became the first African American female physician in the United States in 1864 upon being awarded her M.D. by New England Female Medical College in Boston.
* Lucy Hobbs Taylor (1833–1910) was the first female dentist in the United States.
* Elizabeth Garrett Anderson (1836–1917) was a pioneering feminist in Britain who became the first female doctor in the United Kingdom in 1865 and a co-founder of London School of Medicine for Women.
* Madeleine Brès (1839–1925) was the first female medical doctor in France.
* Sophia Jex-Blake (1840–1912) was an English physician, feminist and teacher who was the first woman to practice medicine in Scotland in 1878.
* Sophia Bambridge (1841–1910) was the first female doctor in American Samoa.
* Frances Hoggan (1843–1927) became the first female doctor in Wales in 1870. She was also the first British woman to receive a doctorate in medicine (1870).
* Jennie Kidd Trout (1841–1921) was the first woman in Canada to become a licensed medical doctor in March 1875.
* Rosina Heikel (1842–1929) was a feminist and the first female physician in Finland (1878), as well as in the Nordic countries.
* Nadezhda Suslova (1843–1918), a graduate of Zurich University, was the first female doctor in Russia
* Edith Pechey-Phipson (1845–1908) was a pioneering English doctor in India. She received her MD in 1877 from the University of Bern and Licentiate in Midwifery in 1877 at the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland.
* Mary Scharlieb (1845–1930) was a pioneer British female physician, as she was the first woman to be elected to the honorary visiting staff of a hospital in the United Kingdom.
* Vilma Hugonnai (1847–1922) was the first female doctor in Hungary. She studied Medicine in Zürich and received her degree in 1879. However, she had to work as a midwife until 1897 when the Hungarian authorities finally accepted her degree. Hugonnai then started her own medical practice.
* Margaret Cleaves (1848–1917) was a pioneering doctor in brachytherapy who obtained her M.D. in 1873. She was the first female appointed to the University of Iowa Medical Department's examining committee in 1885.
* Anastasia Golovina, also known as Anastassya Nikolau Berladsky-Golovina, and Atanasya Golovina (1850–1933), was the first female doctor in Bulgaria.
* Ogino Ginko (1851–1913) was the first licensed and practicing female physician of Western medicine in Japan.
* Bohuslava Kecková (1854–1911), first Bohemian ( Czech) woman to obtain a medical degree in 1880 from University of Zurich.
* Aletta Jacobs (1854–1929) was the first woman to complete a university course in the Netherlands and the first female doctor in the country.
* Hope Bridges Adams Lehmann (1855–1916) was the first female general practitioner and gynecologist in Munich, Germany.
* Grace Cadell (1855–1918) and Marion Gilchrist (1864–1952) were the first women to qualify as doctors in Scotland respectively in 1891 and 1894.
* Draga Ljočić-Milošević (1855–1926) was a feminist activist and the first female physician in Serbia. She graduated from Zurich University in 1879
* Henriette Saloz-Joudra (1855–1928) successfully defended a doctoral thesis in cardiology at the University of Geneva in June 1883.
* Ana Galvis Hotz (1855–1934) was the first female doctor in Colombia. She was also the first Colombian woman (and first woman from Latin America) to obtain a medical degree.
* Constance Stone (1856–1902) was the first woman to practice medicine in Australia.
* Dolors Aleu i Riera (1857–1913) was the first female medical doctor in Spain when she started practicing medicine in 1879.
* Maria Cuțarida-Crătunescu (1857–1919) was the first female doctor in Romania.
* Lilian Welsh (1858–1938) was the first woman full professor at Goucher College.
* Sonia Belkind (1858–1943), who was Russian-born, was the first female doctor in Palestine.
* Isabel Cobb (1858–1947), who earned her M.D. in 1892, was Cherokee and the first woman physician in Indian territory. She was also an alumnus of Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania.
* Matilde Montoya (1859–1939) became the first female physician in Mexico in 1887.
* Kadambini Ganguly (1861–1923) was the first Indian woman to obtain a medical degree in India upon graduating from the Calcutta Medical College in 1886.
* Elsie Inglis (1864–1917), born in India, was a pioneering Scottish doctor and suffragist who obtained her MD at Edinburgh School of Medicine for Women and worked at Rotunda Hospital, Dublin.
* Annie Lowrie Alexander (1864–1929) was the first licensed female physician in the Southern United States
* Anandi Gopal Joshi (1865–1887), the first Indian woman to obtain a medical degree having graduated from the Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania in 1886.
* Susan La Flesche Picotte (1865–1915) was the first Native American woman to obtain a medical degree.
* Sofia Okunevska (1865–1926) was the first Ukrainian female doctor.
* Mary Josephine Hannan (1865–1935) was the first Irishwoman to graduate with the following credentials: LRCPI & SI and LM.
* Marie Spångberg Holth (1865–1942) was the first woman doctor in Norway after graduating in medicine from the Royal Frederiks University of Christiania in 1893.
* Anne Walter Fearn (1865–1938) practiced as a medical doctor in Shanghai, China, for almost 40 years.
* Eloísa Díaz (1866–1950) became the first female doctor in Chile upon graduating from the Universidad de Chile on December 27, 1886. She obtained her degree on January 3, 1887.
* Merbai Ardesir Vakil (1868–1941) was an Indian physician and the first Asian woman to graduate from a Scottish university.
* Eva Jellett (1868–1958), first woman to graduate from Trinity College Dublin with a medical degree in 1905.
* Bertha E. Reynolds (1868–1961) was among the first women licensed to practice medicine in Wisconsin (serving the rural communities of Lone Rock and Avoca).
* Emma K. Willits (1869–1965) was believed to be only the third woman to specialize in surgery and the first to head a Department of General Surgery at Children's Hospital in San Francisco, 1921–1934.
* Alice Hamilton (1869–1970) was an American physician, research scientist, and author who is best known as a leading expert in the field of occupational health and a pioneer in the field of industrial toxicology. She was also the first woman appointed to the faculty of Harvard University.
* Vera Gedroitz (1870–1932) was the first female professor of surgery in the world, as well as the first female military surgeon in Russia.
* Maria Montessori (1870–1952), renowned educator and one of the first female medical doctors in Italy.
* Milica Šviglin Čavov (b. unknown, circa 1870s) was the first Croatian female doctor. She graduated from the Medical School in Zürich in 1893, but was not allowed to work in Croatia.
* Florence Sabin (1871–1953) was the first woman elected to the United States National Academy of Sciences.
* Yoshioka Yayoi (1871–1959), one of the first women to gain a medical degree in Japan; founded a medical school for women in 1900.
* Hannah Myrick (1871–1973) had helped to introduce the use of X-rays at the New England Hospital for Women and Children.
* Laura Esther Rodriguez Dulanto (1872–1919) was the first female doctor in Peru upon obtaining her medical degree.
* Marie Equi (1872–1952) was an American doctor and activist for women's access to birth control and abortion.
* Karola Maier Milobar (born 1876) became the first female physician to practice in Croatia in 1906.
* Bertha De Vriese (1877–1958) was the first Belgian woman to obtain a medical degree from Ghent University.
* Selma Feldbach (1878–1924) was the first Estonian woman to become a medical doctor.
* Andrea Evangelina Rodríguez Perozo (1879–1947) was the first female medical school graduate in the Dominican Republic.Castro Ventura, Santiago. Evangelina Rodríguez, pionera médica dominicana. Santo Domingo: Ed. Manatí, 2003
* Alice Mary Barry (1880–1955) was a doctor and the first woman nominated fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland.

* Ernestina Paper (b. unknown, circa mid-1800s) was the first Italian woman to receive an advanced degree (in medicine) in 1877.
* Dr. Ethel Constance Cousins (1882–1944) and Nurse Elizabeth Brodie were the first European women admitted to Bhutan in 1918 as part of a missionary effort to curtail a cholera outbreak.
* Muthulakshmi Reddi (1886–1968) was one of the early female medical doctors in India and a major social reformer.
* María Elisa Rivera Díaz (b. 1887) (1909), Ana Janer (1913) were the first women to earn a medical degree in Puerto Rico. María Elisa Rivera Díaz and Ana Janer

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