Women's Health

Elizabeth Blackwell, MD (1821 - 1910)

In 1849, Elizabeth Blackwell became the first woman in the United States to be granted an MD degree. Blackwell began her pioneering journey after a deathly ill friend insisted she would have received better care from a female doctor.    Turned away by more than 10 medical schools, Blackwell refused a professor’s suggestion that she disguise herself as a male to gain admission. “It was to my mind a moral crusade,” she wrote at the time. “It must be pursued in the light of day, and with public sanction, in order to accomplish its end.”  Blackwell ultimately attended Geneva Medical College in western New York: Male students there asked their opinion agreed to admit her, thinking the matter a mere prank.  In the years following graduation, Blackwell struggled to find work, but in 1857, she co-founded the New York Infirmary for Indigent Women and Children to serve the poor. The hospital, like the Woman’s Medical College of the New York Infirmary she created in 1867 and many other efforts, was also intended to support and encourage women hoping to pursue careers in medicine.

Rebecca Lee Crumpler, MD (1831-1895)

Dr. Crumpler became the first African-American woman to earn a medical degree in the United States. She graduated in 1864 from New England Female Medical College and published her book, Book of Medical Discourses, in 1883. Her work included providing medical care to free slaves through the Freedman’s Bureau, as well as poor women and children.

Mary Putnam Jacobi, MD (1842-1906)

With the reluctant support of her father, renowned publisher George Putnam, Jacobi received her MD degree from the Female (later Woman’s) Medical College of Pennsylvania in 1864. Determined to get a better education than she could in the United States, she also managed to study at l’École de Médecine in Paris — the first woman to ever do so.  Jacobi fought hard for her female peers. She argued for coeducation for medical students, noting that existing women’s medical schools could not provide the same clinical experience as major hospitals. In 1872, she created the Association for the Advancement of the Medical Education of Women to address inequities.

Over the course of her career, Jacobi taught and wrote prolifically about such topics as pediatrics, pathology, and neurology, and she was the first woman accepted into the New York Academy of Medicine. But perhaps her most outstanding contribution was debunking myths about menstruation.

Margaret Higgins Sanger (1879-1966)

Sanger was a controversial and well-known birth control activist, sex educator and nurse. Around 1910 she coined the term ‘birth control,’ causing a backlash that forced her to flee the U.S. until 1915. In 1916, she opened the first birth control clinic in the United States and was arrested nine days after it opened for violating the Comstock Act. In 1921 the American Birth Control League was established, an earlier adaptation of Planned Parenthood. Her passion for women’s reproductive rights inspired her to push forward towards what resulted in the first oral contraceptive, Enovid.

Susan La Flesche Picotte (1865-1915)

The first American Indian doctor, Susan Picotte grew up on the Omaha Reservation in Nebraska at a time when the U.S. government was forcing American Indian tribes onto reservations and mandating their assimilation into white society. Her parents encouraged her pursuit of an Anglo-American education, and Picotte graduated from Woman’s Medical College of Pennsylvania in 1889, becoming the first American Indian female physician. She returned to the Omaha reservation and, after a brief period working as a doctor for the Office of Indian Affairs, spent her career making house calls on foot and horse-drawn buggy across its 1,350 square miles. In addition to her medical work, La Flesche was a community leader, working tirelessly for her tribe to combat the theft of American Indian land and public health crises including the spread of tuberculosis and alcoholism. In 1913, Picotte fulfilled her lifelong dream of founding a hospital on the Omaha reservation.

Margaret Jessie Chung (1889 - 1959)

Dr. Margaret “Mom” Chung was the first Chinese American woman to become a physician. She founded one of the first Western medical clinics in San Francisco’s Chinatown in the 1920s. During World War II, she and her widespread network of “adopted sons,” most of them American soldiers, sailors, and airmen who called her “Mom,” became famous. Dr. Chung hosted her “sons” and their guests—including movie stars, politicians, and top military brass—at large weekly dinners in her San Francisco home. Dr. Chung used her influence to support the Allied war effort. She lobbied for the creation of the WAVES, the U.S. Naval Women’s Reserve. Although she faced prejudice because of her race, gender, and sexuality, Dr. Chung forged a distinctive path for herself throughout her life.

Virginia Apgar (1909-1974)

Dr. Apgar was an American obstetrical anesthesiologist and the first woman to become a full professor at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. Apgar was known for contributing the Apgar (Appearance, Pulse, Grimace, Activity, Respiration) score – a standardized method of evaluating newborn health after birth. The Apgar score also helped Apgar and researchers quantify the effects of obstetrical anesthesia on babies which improved the fight against infant mortality.

Gertrude Elion (1918-1999)

As an American biochemist and pharmacologist, Elion shared the 1988 Nobel Prize for the development of drugs used to treat several major diseases. After retirement, she oversaw the development of azidothymidine (AZT), an AIDS treatment that prevents pregnant mothers from spreading it to their fetuses. Elion was also responsible for the first immunosuppressive drug used for organ transplants, as well as the first antiviral drug to treat viral Herpes infections.

Joycelyn Elders, MD (1933 - )

Elders did not see a doctor until she was 16 years old, and when she did, she knew she wanted to be one.

After serving in the Army, she enrolled at the University of Arkansas Medical School with funding from the GI Bill, and she graduated in 1960 as the only woman in her class. She went on to become the first board-certified pediatric endocrinologist in Arkansas and to focus on preventing pregnancy among teens with diabetes.

In 1987, Elders was chosen to run the Arkansas Department of Health. In that role, she logged many impressive achievements, including nearly doubling childhood immunizations, expanding the state’s prenatal care program, and increasing supports for elderly and terminally ill patients.

These and many other successes led to Elders’ appointment as surgeon general in 1993.

Patricia Goldman-Rakic, PhD (1937-2003)

Alzheimer’s disease, cerebral palsy, Parkinson’s disease, schizophrenia — scientists’ understanding of these conditions and many more are founded on the groundbreaking research of Patricia Goldman-Rakic.  

Goldman-Rakic achieved her success by taking a multidisciplinary approach, combining such fields as anatomy, biochemistry, and pharmacology. In fact, when she joined the faculty at the Yale School of Medicine in 1979 — after conducting research at such prestigious institutions as MIT and the National Institutes of Health — she held appointments in several departments, including neurology and psychiatry.

Over her career, she published more than 200 papers and received numerous honors, including admission to the National Academy of Sciences in 1990. 

Antonia Novello, MD (1944 - )

When Antonia Novello became U.S. surgeon general in 1990, her name was etched in two history books: one for Hispanics and one for women.  As surgeon general, Novello chose to focus on protecting the young and the vulnerable, addressing such issues as underage drinking and cigarette ads that targeted children.  Over the course of her career, Novello was committed to battling health inequities among the poor and minority groups. Speaking in 2017 at a health equity symposium at Penn Health, Novello quoted historian Yehuda Bauer, who said, “Thou shalt not be a victim, thou shalt not be a perpetrator, but, above all, thou shalt not be a bystander.”

Mary-Claire King (1946 - )

As an American Cancer Society Professor, Dr. King studies human genetics and complex traits. Her work involves studying the interaction of genetics and environmental influences in various diseases. Her contributions to medicine include identifying understanding the genetic susceptibility of breast cancer, demonstrating that humans and chimpanzees are 99% genetically identical, and using genomic sequencing to identify victims of human rights abuse such as illegal adoption.

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As a DBH,  you will leave your mark on the history of healthcare.