Profile America: FIRST MEDICAL SCHOOL FOR WOMEN

Tuesday, November 1 — On this date in 1848, the first medical school for women opened in Boston. At the time, it had a faculty of two and 12 students. By 1873, the school had graduated almost 100 doctors. That year, the Boston Female Medical School merged with the Boston University School of Medicine to form the world’s first coed medical learning facility. Today in the U.S., some 55 percent of all college students are female, and women earn around 58 percent of the doctorates in health professions awarded each year. Of the 908,000 active physicians in the U.S., 598,000 of those identified are men, and 300,000 women. Female doctors make up the great majority in the specialties of obstetrics, gynecology and pediatric medicine.

 

Profile America is in its 20th year as a public service of the U.S. Census Bureau.

 

Sources: Kane’s Famous First Facts

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