Elizabeth Blackwell was the first woman to receive a medical degree in the United States and the first woman on the UK medical register.
She obtained her degree in 1849. In 1890, Emma Constance Stone was the first woman admitted to the Victorian medical board in Australia. Both of these women were initially denied entrance to university.
Skip forward to modern day medicine, more than half of medical graduates worldwide are women. Women are making huge leaps and bounds in a profession that has been a traditional male bastion. Surgery is still an area dominated by men, with only around 10% of surgeons in Australia women.
In 2015, to show that stereotypes are off the mark, US general surgical resident Heather Logghe MD, first used the hashtag #ILookLikeASurgeon. This online campaign united hundreds of supporters on line and aims to demonstrate that the traditional notion of a middle aged man as a surgeon, were no longer applicable.
Wearing my great grandmother’s pink blouse today. She was unable to be a doctor. Times have changed. #likealadydoc pic.twitter.com/khUHv36l0w
— Naomi Meardon (@abushelandapeck) January 20, 2016