Cheryll Rogers was a recent Fredonia Shakespeare Club speaker on March being National Women’s History month. She called it a wonderful opportunity to commemorate the achievements of women in medicine.

Men traditionally had dominated medicine, as women were largely excluded apart from roles in nursing or midwifery. Despite experiencing prejudice and discrimination, many women have made outstanding medical contributions, including:

¯ Egyptian Metrodora (circa 100 CE) stood out as a gynecologist, midwife and scholar. She wrote “On the Diseases and Cures of Women” that addressed medical issues and provided general advice on public health. Her contributions included the use of a speculum for medical examinations, and creation of the tampon as a contraceptive method and treatment for vaginal infections.

¯ Jane Sharp, first female to author a text for the instruction of other English midwives in London in 1671. Up until then, although midwifery was practiced by women, books on midwifery were written by men with no practical experience.

¯ Florence Nightingale became a nurse and revolutionized hospital design, improving cleanliness and safety standards. Nightingale’s professional record impressed Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, who set up a fund to teach nurses in England and opened the Nightingale Training School at St. Thomas’ Hospital in 1860.

¯ Elizabeth Blackwell, first woman to receive a medical degree in the United States. Blackwell opened the NY Dispensary for Poor Women and Children and the NY Infirmary for Indigent Women and Children in the 1850s, helped to establish the U.S. Sanitary Commission in 1861 and the Women’s Medical College of NY Infirmary, a medical school for women with a comprehensive and competitive curriculum.

¯ Dr. Rebecca Lee Crumpler, first Black woman to receive a Medical Degree in the United States from the New England Female Medical College in 1864. She published “A Book of Medical Discourses”, her journal notes kept during her years of practice, covering maternal and child health, pregnancy, nursing, and teething. Scientific American magazine described it as the forerunner to the famous “What to Expect When You’re Expecting”, published in 1984.

¯ Mary Edwards Walker, feminist, suffragist, suspected spy, prisoner of war and surgeon, born in 1832 in Oswego, NY. She earned a Doctor of Medicine degree from Syracuse Medical College. During the Civil War, she was arrested by the Confederates for spying, and spent four months as a prisoner of war. Dr. Walker was awarded the Medal of Honor for Meritorious Service, and remains the only woman to receive such distinction.

¯ Susan La Flesche Picotte, first Indigenous American woman to receive a medical degree, and served as sole provider for more than 1,300 people over an area of 450 square miles.

¯ Marie Sklodowska Curie promoted the use of radium to alleviate suffering, and was a Nobel Prize recipient twice for her work in radioactivity.

¯ Virginia Apgar, MD devised a tool to assess a neonate’s health risks and need for potentially life-saving observations.

¯ Patricia Goldman-Rakic, PhD achieved insight into the brain’s frontal lobes and such crucial functions as cognition, planning and working memory.

¯ Antonia Novello, MD, first female U.S. Surgeon General, focused on the young and vulnerable by addressing issues such as underage drinking and cigarette ads targeted children.

These women had a massive impact on medicine by breaking the societal and gender expectations for their eras and paved the way for others to follow.