September is Women in Medicine Month. The American Medical Association uses the month to highlight all that female physicians have done, as well as advocate for women doctors and the health issues that affect them and their female patients. In honor of Women in Medicine Month, the editorial team at PhysicianSense feels that it’s only appropriate to highlight what women have done to improve the quality and equity of the practice of medicine. Let’s celebrate 5 trailblazing female doctors from U.S. history. Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell (1821-1910) Among trailblazing female doctors, Elizabeth Blackwell, who lived from 1821-1910, is a groundbreaking physician. Blackwell was the first female doctor in the United States, graduating from Geneva Medical College in New York in 1849. Blackwell began her professional life as a teacher, but pursued medicine after a dying friend told her that she would have suffered less, had she been under the care of a female physician. The road to medical school for Blackwell was not easy. According to the NIH, the Geneva faculty assumed students, who were all male, wouldn’t want a female in their ranks. But the students voted her in (the NIH says as a joke), and she was accepted and made it through. The joke ended up being on them. Blackwell went on to found the New York Infirmary for Women and Children in 1857, along with an affiliated medical college for women, which opened a decade later. The infirmary helped expand medical training to women and medical care to the poor. Dr. Rebecca Lee Crumpler (1831-1895) Rebecca Lee Crumpler was the first female African American physician in the United States. Crumpler, who lived from 1831-1895, began her career in medicine as a nurse. But in 1860, she would take the first step in altering the course of U.S. medical history by applying to and earning acceptance into the New England Female Medical College. Crumpler graduated in 1864, becoming the institution’s only African American graduate before it closed in 1873. Breaking medicine’s color barrier wasn’t enough for Crumpler. At the end of the Civil War, she relocated from Boston, where she practiced, to Richmond, Virginia, where she worked for the Freedmen’s Bureau, addressing the health needs of recently freed slaves. Her medical practice would lead to another first, the first medical text by an African American author. Dr. Mary Edwards Walker (1832-1919) Mary Edwards Walker, who lived from 1832-1919, has the distinction of being the only female winner of the Medal of Honor (and the award was rescinded, then reinstated). Walker was among the first, if not the first, female surgeons in the United States. She earned her M.D. from Syracuse Medical College in 1855. She married a fellow physician and practiced in Rome, New York, until the outbreak of the Civil War, when she joined the Union Army as a nurse, going on to become a surgeon. There’s much speculation that she was a POW during the war, perhaps volunteering in a prisoner exchange to spy for the Union Army. That should give you some insights as to Walker’s character. In addition to being an Army surgeon, Walker was a champion of women’s rights, arguing vehemently against the strict norms of female dress of the time. Walker, who often dressed in a more masculine fashion for the era, argued that restrictive corsets and long skirts were not conducive to health. She was also an outspoken abolitionist. Dr. Susan La Flesche Picotte (1865-1915) Like Walker, Susan La Flesche Picotte is another female physician who turned tragedy into triumph. La Flesche Picotte, who lived from 1865-1915, was the first Native American physician in the United States. For context, Native Americans wouldn’t be considered U.S. citizens by the government until 1924. She was born in the Omaha Reservation in Nebraska. La Flesche Picotte decided to become a doctor after watching a Native woman die because a white doctor wouldn’t take care of her. She would receive her M.D. in 1889 from the Woman’s Medical College of Pennsylvania, graduating at the top of her class. According to the NIH, La Flesche Picotte’s dream was to open a hospital in Walthill, Nebraska — a reservation town. She did in 1913, two years prior to her death. There you’ll find a museum dedicated to her career, and the history of the Winnebago and Omaha tribes. Dr. Gerty Cori (1896-1957) Gerty Cori has the distinction of being the first American female to be awarded the Nobel Prize. Cori, who lived from 1896-1957, earned her M.D. from the Medical School of the German University of Prague in 1920. She then went on to emigrate to the United States. Cori performed metabolic research with her husband, Dr. Carl Cori. She and her husband would develop what would become known as the Cori cycle, which describes the use of glycogen in the liver and muscle tissue. This paved the way for the modern understanding and treatment of diabetes. In 1947, she became the first American Nobel Prize Winner in Physiology or Medicine for her work. TL;DR Five trailblazing female doctors: Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell: First female American physician Dr. Rebecca Lee Crumpler: First African American physician Dr. Mary Edwards Walker: Among the first female surgeons, only female Medal of Honor winner Dr. Susan La Flesche Picotte: First Native American female physician Dr. Gerty Cori: First American female Nobel Prize winner for Physiology or Medicine, co-discoverer of the Cori cycle Source
