1900's Medicine and Health | Diversity in the Medical Profession: Women Physicians

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...