Determined Women.

In 1900 more than seven thousand female physicians were practicing in the United States. More than one hundred of these doctors were African Americans. These women comprised about 5 percent of all doctors, and that percentage remained steady until increases began in the 1960s. Elizabeth Blackwell, the first woman in the United States to receive a medical degree, began her studies at Geneva Medical College in upstate New York in October 1847. Her admission had been a fluke. The college faculty opposed the idea and put it to a vote of the students on the assumption they would agree. The students considered the matter a joke, and all voted for her. Two years later Blackwell graduated at the top of her class. Blackwell's younger sister Emily was not so lucky: she had to apply to eleven schools before Rush Medical College in Chicago admitted her in 1852. In the meantime, the Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania had...