Women in Medicine

Elizabeth Blackwell

1849

The first women to earn a medical degree. Blackwell graduated from Geneva college in New York.

Rita Lobato

1887

First woman to study medicine in Brazil. Women were not allowed to attend medical school in Brazil until 1879.

Yoshioka Yayoi

1900

Founded the first medical school for women in Japan after being one of the first to receive a medical degree.

Susan Gyankorama De-Graft Johnson

1947

First woman to qualify as a physician in Ghana. She was a Diplomate of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynecology and the Royal College of Pediatrics and Child Health.

Henrietta Lacks

1951

Without her knowledge, cells from Henrietta's cervix were removed and biopsied, giving them the name "HeLa." These cells were later used to develop a polo vaccine.

Pearl Dunlevy

1958

First woman president of the Biological Society of the Royal College of Surgeons of Ireland

Patricia Bath

1986

Invented the laseropharco probe allowing safer, less painful removal of cataracts.

Jerri Lin Nielsen

1998

While stationed in the South Pole, Nielsen developed breast cancer and operated on herself to extract tissue samples for analysis.

Fiona Wood

2002

Pioneered spray-on-skin used after the bombings in Bali.

Esther Apuahe

2011

First female surgeon (neurosurgeon) in Papua New Guinea.