Famous Females in Healthcare History

Many women have made immense contributions to medicine, from establishing the first medical schools for women to making significant advances in the surgical field. Today, women represent 70% of the global healthcare force, filling positions in clinics and hospitals. 

While it wasn't always easy for women to break into medicine and make an impact, with perseverance and hard work, they paved the way for new generations to gain recognition. Read on to learn more about 16 famous women in healthcare and how they left their mark on the medical field. 

16 Famous Women in Healthcare

The following are 16 women leaders in healthcare, their accomplishments and how they helped shape the trajectory of medicine forever.

1. Elizabeth Blackwell

 

Elizabeth Blackwell might be one of the most well-known women in healthcare. The first woman to earn a medical degree in the United States, Blackwell used her skills to train nurses during the Civil War and, in 1857, established an infirmary for underprivileged women and children in New York. 

But things weren't easy at the beginning of her career. Before Blackwell made her mark on the medical field, U.S. medical schools refused to admit women, and the college that accepted Blackwell believed her application to be a prank. In medical school, she wasn't allowed to sit next to her male peers and instructors banned her from attending labs.

Despite these setbacks, Blackwell graduated at the top of her class in 1849. In 1974, she established the first British medical school for women, paving the way for others hoping to pursue careers in medicine.

2. Rebecca Lee Crumpler

Rebecca Lee Crumpler made history as the first African American woman in the U.S. to earn a medical degree. In her 1883 publication, A Book of Medical Discourses: In Two Parts, she expressed her hopes to “relieve the suffering of others” through her work. After working as a nurse for eight years in New England, Crumpler pursued her medical degree at New England Female Medical College and, following graduation in 1864, became the only black graduate in the school's history. 

Crumpler then moved to Richmond, Virginia, working tirelessly to provide medical care for formerly enslaved people. While she suffered rampant racism and sexism, Crumpler persisted and gained much experience before returning to care for patients in Boston.

Rebecca Lee Crumpler is known not only for her pioneering work as one of the most famous female physicians in U.S. history, but as a force for overcoming issues of race and prejudice.

3. Virginia Apgar

The next spot on the list of women leaders in healthcare is Virginia Apgar, who received multiple awards and recognition for her contributions to the medical field. She was a surgeon and anesthesiologist, though her most significant impact came in the form of neonatal health.

In 1933, Apgar graduated as one of just nine women at Columbia University's medical school. In 1938, she became the first director of Columbia-Presbyterian Hospital's anesthesia division, teaching teratology — the study of congenital disabilities. 

In 1952, she developed the Apgar test, a system used to determine the health of newborns. “Apgar scores” became a standard part of labor and delivery, helping doctors identify newborns who require potentially life-saving medical attention. The test is still used worldwide to help reduce infant mortality and promote healthy babies. 

4. Mary Edwards Walker

An American surgeon, abolitionist and champion for women's rights, Dr. Mary Edwards Walker, is known as the only woman to receive the Presidential Medal of Honor for her service during the Civil War. Dr. Walker was also the first female U.S. Army surgeon, rightfully placing her on the list of famous women in medicine. 

At first, the Union Army only allowed her to volunteer as a nurse, though she persisted and was eventually approved to be a surgeon in Ohio. During the war, she crossed battle lines to care for soldiers and civilians, helping those in need. In 1864, Confederate soldiers caught her treating Southerners, and she became a prisoner of war. After the war, Walker was awarded the Medal of Honor by President Johnson in 1816. To this day, she is still the only woman to receive this coveted award. 

Dr. Walker's legacy continues to be honored as one of the most famous women in medicine. 

5. Jane Cooke Wright, MD

The first woman elected president of the New York Cancer Society, Jane Cooke Wright is known for her significant contributions to cancer research. Wright had a fruitful career, including being appointed to the President's Commission on Heart Disease, Cancer and Stroke and working as an associated dean at New York Medical College. 

At a time when African American women doctors were sparse, Dr. Wright was the highest-ranked Black-American woman at a nationally recognized medical institution by 1967. She analyzed various anti-cancer agents and developed new techniques for administering cancer chemotherapy, testing several patients who eventually had some remission. 

Her research paved the way for cancer treatment methods that impact available treatments today. 

6. Ogino Ginko

 

At age 16, Ogino Ginko vowed to become Japan's first female doctor. After discovering her husband had given her a sexually transmitted disease, Ginko filed for divorce, moved to Tokyo and began working in a hospital. After seeing how male physicians mistreated female patients, she worked toward gaining her medical degree.

Though she faced much harassment in medical school, she kept going and, in 1885, graduated and became the first female doctor of Western medicine in Japan. She won over many patients who'd vowed never to let a woman doctor touch them and eventually founded her own gynecology clinic. Ginko practiced medicine for several years, becoming one of the most famous women in medicine. 

7. Mary Putnam Jacobi

Since she was very young, Mary Putnam Jacobi was always interested in biology. With her father's reluctant support, Jacobi received her doctorate in medicine in 1864. Motivated to get a better education than she could in the U.S., she also studied at l'École de Médicine in Paris, becoming the first woman ever to do so. 

Jacobi advocated for her female peers, arguing for women's education to match the clinical experience in major hospitals. In 1872, she founded the Association for the Advancement of the Medical Education of Women to address these inequities. Over her extensive career, she taught and wrote about topics like pathology, pediatrics and neurology, becoming the first woman accepted into the New York Academy of Medicine. 

One of her most significant contributions comes in the form of menstrual health. In response to a Harvard professor's argument that mental and physical exertion during menstruation was dangerous for women, she counterargued the strength of women during their menstruation cycle, winning Harvard's prestigious Boylston Prize for her paper. Jacobi is now recognized as an important figure in women's fight for better education.

8. Susan LaFlesche Picotte

As a child, Susan LaFlesche Picotte witnessed a Native American woman die because a white doctor refused to provide her care. Years later, she became the first American Indian woman in the U.S. to receive a medical degree. 

But before she became one of the most famous female physicians in history, Picotte taught at a Quaker school on the Omaha reservation. She helped care for ill ethnologist Alice Fletcher, who encouraged her to pursue a medical career. In 1889, she graduated from the Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania at the top of her class. 

She continued her medical career when she returned home, often working long hours into the night caring for patients. By 1913, she had achieved her lifelong dream of opening a hospital in the reservation town of Waterhill, Nebraska. 

9. Gerty Theresa Cori 

Gerty Cori made history in 1947 as the first woman to win the Nobel Prize in science. Cori emigrated to the U.S. after receiving her doctorate in medicine in Prague. She then became a biochemistry professor at Washington University and researched with her husband, another medical professor at the school.

Together, the duo researched the body's energy use from food, studying insulin production, hormones and blood glucose concentration. Cori faced many obstacles throughout her career as a woman in the medical field. Many universities refused to hire her and when Washington University hired her husband, they offered her the research position at a fraction of his salary. 

Fortunately, winning the Nobel Prize recognized her as an equal in their trailblazing medical research. We now honor her legacy as one of the most famous female physicians in U.S. history.

10. Joycelyn Elders

Joycelyn Elders was born in 1933, growing up in a poor part of Arkansas. Decades later, she became the first African American surgeon general of the U.S. and the second woman to hold the position. 

Elders knew she wanted to be a doctor from the age of 16 years old. After serving in the Army, she enrolled at the University of Arkansas Medical School and graduated in 1960 as the only woman in her class. She later became the first board-certified pediatric endocrinologist in Arkansas, focusing on preventing pregnancy among teens with diabetes. 

In 1987, Elders was chosen to lead the Arkansas Department of Health. In her role, she achieved many impressive feats, including doubling childhood immunizations, expanding the prenatal care program and increasing support for elderly and terminally ill patients. These successes led to her appointment as surgeon general in 1993, where she advocated for access to birth control and women's health issues. 

Since then, Elders has advocated for women's health, traveling the country to speak about these issues and cementing her place among the many incredible women in healthcare leadership. 

11. Gertrude Elion 

Gertrude Elion was an American biochemist and pharmacologist. She was honored for her work in treating diseases, sharing the 1988 Nobel Prize for her efforts in developing drugs to treat serious diseases. After retirement, she supervised the development of an acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) treatment to prevent pregnant women from spreading the disease to their children. She also developed the first antiviral drug to treat viral herpes infections and invented an immunosuppressive drug key to organ transplants.

Before her death in 1999, Elion became a Research Professor of Medicine and Pharmacology at Duke University, serving on editorial boards while lecturing a new generation of scientists in the research field. Today, Gertrude Elion goes down in history as revolutionizing the development of new pharmaceuticals and being an inspiration to aspiring scientists. 

12. Patricia Goldman-Rakic

 

We can thank Patricia Goldman-Rakic for her groundbreaking research on Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, cerebral palsy and schizophrenia. Many scientists now understand these conditions better due to her insights, making her one of the many influential women leaders in healthcare.

Goldman-Rakic received her Ph.D. from UCLA in 1964, achieving an unprecedented look into the brain's frontal lobes. She conducted her work on the prefrontal cortex at a time when the region was deemed too complex to research in detail. However, she was able to map the part of the brain and shed more understanding on crucial functions like cognition, planning and working memory.

Over her career, she published over 200 papers and received several honors, including admission to the National Academy of Sciences in 1990. Today, she is remembered for her insights into brain function that now shape how we understand the mind and brain. 

13. Margaret Higgins Sanger

Margaret Higgins Sanger is known for advocating for safe and effective birth control. Though she faced persistent backlash, she never gave up on her quest for accessible contraception, opening the first birth control clinic in the U.S. in 1916. 

While she was arrested and served 30 days in jail after opening the clinic, she continued fighting for women's health issues, developing one of the first oral contraceptives, Enovid. Sanger's pioneering vision has undoubtedly paved the way for women worldwide to gain more access to birth control.

14. Florence Nightingale 

In the early 19th century, Florence Nightingale became one of the few women to pursue a medical career. During the Crimean War, she led a team of female physicians who cared for injured British soldiers. While male doctors first refused assistance, Nightingale's insistence on better sanitation and attention to each soldier saw a drop in death rates from 40% to 2%. 

After the war, Nightingale took her experiences back to Britain, managing to convince Queen Victoria to implement her work to transform hospitals across the country. 

15. Susie King Taylor

During the Civil War, Susie King Taylor escaped slavery and volunteered for the Army's first Black regiment, where she became the first Black Army nurse. She also taught Black soldiers how to read whenever she had time aside from medical duties.

After the war, she opened a school for Black students in Georgia and became the only Black woman to publish a memoir of her wartime experiences during the Civil War. After moving to Boston in 1872, she devoted the rest of her life to working with the Woman's Relief Corps, a national organization for women Civil War veterans. 

16. Nancy W. Dickey

In 1998, Dr. Nancy Dickey became the first woman to be elected president of the American Medical Association. She is an educator, leader and passionate caregiver, becoming a member of the AMA Council at just 26 years old — the youngest to have ever held the position.

Dr. Dickey currently serves as president of the Texas A&M University System Health Science Center and vice chancellor for health affairs. She continues to empower women in healthcare while serving on the Board of Trustees of the Foundation for the History of Women in Medicine. 

She also received several awards, including six honorary doctorate degrees in science and law. Today, she writes for medical and health policy journals and is a frequent speaker at civic and professional organizations worldwide. 

Join the Team of Female Trailblazers in Medicine

 

Thanks to the famous female physicians over the last century and a half, we've seen more and more women in hospitals and clinics today.  With solid wages, job growth and benefits, women in the healthcare sector can expect solid job stability as these numbers rise. 

When you're ready to join the many women in healthcare leadership, start your academic journey at AIMS. We are a private college located in New Jersey, offering educational programs for people pursuing careers in allied health.

To learn more about our healthcare programs, contact us today.