Women have been healers in one form or another for countless years whether or not they had degrees or formal education. That being said, this section is all about women who received a formal education and rose to prominence in their respective countries. Don't forget to scroll down.
Jang-geum is considered to be the first royal female physician in the history of Joseon (modern day Korea). Some have questioned whether she was a real person or not, but she is mentioned ten times in the Annals of Joseon and is also mentioned in the "Yi Dynasty Medical Officer's Journal," so she most likely did exist. Of the few records surviving, historians have pieced together that she most likely worked in the royal kitchen in front of the Jagyeonggeon of Gyeongbokgung, and recipes attributed to her were handed down for several generations. Her knowledge of plants would have been essential for preparing traditional Korean medicines. Not much, however, is known about her other than that her medical knowledge was such that the king made her his personal physician. She had to have been very skilled and knowledgeable to have earned not only that positions, but the title of "Dae," meaning "great." Her position would have made her the third highest ranking official at court. The popular Korean series Jewel in the Palace was made loosely based on her life, although the creators took liberties with the story since very little is actually known about her.
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Daejanggeum Spurs Continuing Interest in Royal Court Cuisine - Hancinema
About: Jang-geum - DBpedia
Eloísa Díaz Insunza was the first Chilean (and Latin American) woman to become a doctor (1887) (beating out Ernestina Pérez Barahona by a mere 7 days) and first to become a surgeon later that same year. She was born in Santiago, Chile. She began her early education at the Colegio de Primeras Letras de Dolores Cabrera de Martinez and at the Isabel Le Brun de Pinochet y en el Instituto Nacional. She performed incredibly well on her exams, and the decision to grant her a Bachiller en Filosofía y Humanidades (BA in Philosophy and Humanities) at the age of 15 was unanimous. She developed a passion for medicine and enrolled in the Escuela de Medicina de la Universidad de Chile (School of Medicine at the University of Chile), breaking a glass ceiling and becoming one of the first women admitted to a higher education institution in Chile. In order to avoid some of the more unsavory aspects of sexism and to preserve her honor, her mother accompanied her to classes. She subsequently earned her Bachelor of Medicine and Pharmacy and her surgical degree. After earning her degree, she worked in the gynecological clinic of doctor Roberto Moericke in the San Borja Arriarán Hospital. At the same time, she became the hygiene teacher at the Escuela de Preceptores del Sur and eventually became the Medical Inspector of Public Schools of Santiago and then the Medical Inspector of Public Schools at the national level. She believed in mandatory vaccinations, breakfast programs, clean facilities, and regular exercise for all students. She understood that a healthy environment helped students learn and tried to reform public schools in Chile. In 1911, she became the director of the newly created School Medical Service of the Republic, a position which she held for almost 30 years. In addition, she served on many committees, including: the Council of Primary Education, the Scientific Society of Chile, the Society for the Protection of Women, the National Council of Women, the Association of Ladies against Tuberculosis, the Chilean League of Social Hygiene, and the League against Alcoholism. She worked tirelessly to make sure that students in the Chilean school system were healthy and protected.
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Las Primeras Médicas de Chile y Latinoamérica: Eloísa Díaz Insunza y Ernestina Pérez Barahona (The First Chilean Female doctors: Eloísa Díaz Insunza and Ernestina Pérez Barahona) (Note: This article is in Spanish.) - National Library of Medicine
Public Work of Eloísa Díaz Insunza - Memoria Chilena - National Library of Chile (Google will translate this page.)
Ogino Grinko was Japan's first licensed female doctor. She was born in what is now the Saitama Prefecture and entered into an arranged marriage at the age of 16, but her husband liked to visit prostitutes and gave her gonorrhea. After such humiliation and less than adequate treatment at the hands of an unsympathetic doctor, Ogino made the choice to file for divorce. Such would place a stigma on her in society, but she wished to be free of the situation and to pursue a degree in medicine after her experience with the male physician. She began her educational journey by attending Tokyo Women's Normal School. Her formal education completed, she knew that she needed the influence of an important and influential person in order to attend medical school, and so she approached Tadanori Ishiguri, the President of the Japanese Red Cross. Impressed with her, he gave Ogino his help. She also managed to procure the support of Shimoda Utako, an educator and women’s rights activist. With their help, Ogina obtained permission to attend lectures at the Kojuin Hospital private medical school. After overcoming numerous obstacles and resistance, she completed her studies. Then, she had to petition several times to take the medical practitioner's exam, which she easily passed in 1885. Mindful of the way that the doctor had treated her when her husband gave her a venereal disease, she decided to specialize in obstetrics and gynecology. Shortly thereafter, she opened the Ogino Hospital as the first registered woman doctor in Japan, and this was where she treated her female patients. Eventually, she joined the Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) and ended up marrying a protestant clergyman, Yukiyoshi Shikata, in 1890, but, unfortunately, she could not have children due to complications from gonorrhea. This time, the marriage stuck, and the two eventually moved to Hokkaido in 1894, where Ogino opened a medical practice. Yet, tragedy struck in 1908 when her husband died, and she moved back to Tokyo, where she resumed the running of the hospital that she had opened.
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Portraits of Modern Japanese Historical Figures: Ogino Ginko - National Diet Library, Japan
Ogino Ginko - Japan's First Female Doctor - Past Medical History
Dr. Nolwandle Nozipo Mashalaba was the first woman doctor in Botswana and spent over four decades in medicine. Early in her career, in the 1960s, Mashalaba pioneered efforts to introduce family planning services in Botswana, going so far as to take the lead in establsihing the Family Health Division, which incorporated units for nutrition, health education, maternal child care, and family planning. Then, In the 1980s, she was able to create links between the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Education, the result of which was the inclusion of family life education concepts into the school's curriculum. She also helped initiate the training of a group of community health workers, which became known as family welfare educators. For her pioneering work, she was awarded the Botswana Presidential Order of Honour in 2005. Despite her accomplishments, there is very little information available online about her.
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Republic of Botswana (10/9/05) - TAUTONA TIMES no 32 of 2005 - The Weekly Electronic Press Circular of the Office of the President - The University of Texas, Ausin (search for her name using the find command)
Trotula of Salerno (also known as Trotula of Ruggerio and Trotula De Ruggiero of Salermo) was born sometime in the eleventh-century. She is considered to be the first female doctor in Italy and is often hailed as the world’s first gynecologist, although that point is rather contested. Trotula was a doctor and professor at the first medical school in Europe, the Medical School in Salerno, Italy. This was one of the few institutions in Europe to accept both men and women, and this was where Trotula studied and where she later became a teacher. During her lifetime, she specialized in the treatment of female patients, and her medical knowledge was impressive. She even advocated for the use of opiates during childbirth, which went against the popular belief held among Christian men that women had to suffer through childbirth as punishment for Eve's transgressions. Unimpressed with such dogma, she believed in treating her patients based on scientific principles. In fact, she even suggested that men could be infertile and that this was not just a woman's issue. Having acquired a plethora of knowledge in her medical practice, she wrote the work Passionibus Mulierum Curandorum (The Diseases of Women), which was a sixty-three chapter book first published in Latin in the 12th century. The book was meant to educate male doctors about a woman's body, including information about menstruation, childbirth, and general information that her male colleagues needed to know. Long after her death, doctors throughout the medieval world relied on her medical reference, and her opus is still regarded as the definitive sourcebook for pre-modern medical practices.
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Trotula - Brooklyn Museum
"Relevance of the Practice of Medicine by Trotula de Ruggiero (11C–12C)," a Magistra Mulier Sapiens (Female Wisdom Teacher) - Journal of Medical Biography (Sage Journals)
The Women of Salerno: Contribution to the Origins of Surgery From Medieval Italy - The Annals of Thorasic Surgery
Peseshet is possibly the first female physician mentioned in ancient history. She was known as the "lady director of lady physicians," a title which appears on the stela of her son, Akhet-Hetep, in his tomb found in Giza. Her own stela, which was found in her son's tomb reads, "She having reached a very good old age and possessing honour before the great god." Her title suggested that there were other female physicians which she oversaw, and that meant that she most likely was a physician herself. It is important to note that medical education in ancient Egypt was tightly regulated, so Peseshet most likely had to have extensive academic training at one of the temple schools in order to achieve her rank. Because of a lack of evidence, historians do not know if she specialized in one area of medicine or not, although this was common practice in Egypt. What historians do know was that she maintained a leadership role as both a physician and priestess. Based on evidence from the tomb, one of her duties was to look after the king's mother. Both her son and husband, Ka-nefer, were also high ranking officers of the fourth dynasty, which made their family a powerful one.
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"First Among Women" - BMJ (volume 304 - May 9, 1992 edition) (see bottom right corner for the beginning of the article)
"Healer of the Pharaohs: History’s First Woman Doctor" - Hektoen International: A Journal of Medical Humanities
Susan La Flesche Picotte was the first Native American woman in the United States to receive a medical degree. Interestingly enough, she was also the first person to receive federal aid for professional education. La Flesche was born on the Omaha reservation in Nebraska to Chief Joseph La Flesche (whose native name translated as Iron Eyes) and his wife, Mary (whose native name translated to One Woman). Her early childhood on the reservation left an impression, as she watched Native American women die when white male doctors refused to treat them or gave them subpar medical care. So, she decided that she would become a doctor to help her people. To that end, she first attended the Quaker School, which was part of the boarding school system. There, she met Alice Fletcher, a noted ethnologist, and tended to her medical needs. Seeing her potential, Fletcher encouraged La Flesche to attend the Hampton Institute, which, at that time, was one of the nation's first (and arguably best) schools of higher education for students of color. There, La Flesche met Martha Waldron, who encouraged the young woman to apply to the Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania (WMCP). Between Waldron's recommendation and Fletch helping to secure a scholarship, La Flesche was able to attend WMCP. Then, in 1889, after only two years in a three-year program at WMCP, Susan La Flesche graduated at the top of her class. She remained in Philadelphia to complete her year-long internship (similar to a residency today), and then returned to her reservation and to the boarding school that she attended. While back on the reservation, she was responsible for over 1200 people across a 450 square mile territory. After marrying, having two sons, and nursing her husband through a terminal illness, she was finally able to secure funds to open a hospital in the reservation town of Walthil. Sadly, two years after realizing this dream, La Flesche passed away.
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Celebrating America's Women Physicians: Dr. Susan La Flesche Picotte - NIH
How Susan La Flesche Picotte Became the 1st Native American Medical Doctor - PBS News Weekend
Susan La Flesche Picotte - National Park Service
Susannah “Susie” Baker King Taylor was the first African American nurse in the United States. During the Civil War, she was both a nurse and a teacher, working tirelessly to help those in need. At the time, though, she was not acknowledged as such. She had been born into slavery on the Grest Plantation in Liberty County, Georgia and was educated through secret schools for slaves in Savannah. When she escaped in 1862, she joined the war effort, and the Union Army listed her as a "laundress." In actuality, she was a nurse, a caretaker, and a teacher. She was especially associated with the First South Carolina Volunteer Infantry (which would later be known as the 33rd U.S. Colored Troops Infantry Regiment). In 1863 she met and married Sgt. Edward King of the first all-black U.S. Army regiment. After the war, she continued in her role as an educator and opened schools for African Americans in Savannah and Midway, where education no longer had to be done in secret. In 1874, King moved to Boston, and, in 1879, she marry her second husband, Russell Taylor at the Medway Chapel and School. Yet, her experiences during the Civil War imprinted on her deeply, and she ended up penning an autobiographic work, Reminiscences of My Life in Camp with the 33rd United States Colored Troops, a Civil War memoir told from the unique perspective an African American woman. The work was published in 1902. While Taylor's contributions to the war are nothing short of incredible, her story is often overlooked within Civil War history.
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Susie King Taylor: An African American Nurse and Teacher in the Civil War - Library of Congress
Susie King Taylor (1848-1912) - Georgia Historical Society
Susie King Taylor - National Park Service