List of first female physicians by country

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This is a list of the first qualified female physician to practice in each country, where that is known. Many, if not all, countries have had female physicians since time immemorial, however modern systems of qualification have often commenced as male only, whether de facto or de jure. The dates given in parentheses below are the dates the women graduated from medical school.

Africa

Country	Physician	Year graduated medical school	Year began practice
Algeria	Nefissa Hamoud[1]
Egypt	Hilana Sedarous	1930	1930
Ghana	Susan Ofori-Atta	1949	1949
Kenya	Mary de Sousa		1919[2]
Mauritania	Two women[3]	2015	2015
Morocco	Françoise Legey[3] (born in France)		1910
Namibia	Libertina Amathila	1969	1969
Nigeria	Elizabeth Abimbola Awoliyi	1938	1938
Senegal	Marie-Thérèse Basse[4]
Somalia	Hawa Abdi	1971	1971
South Africa	Jane Elizabeth Waterston
Sudan	Khalida Zahir[5]	1952	1952
	And one other woman[6]	1952
Tanzania	Esther Mwaikambo[7]	1969	1969
Tunisia	Tewhida Ben Sheikh	1936	1936
Uganda	Josephine Nambooze	1959	1962
Zimbabwe	Madeline Nyamwanza-Makonese	1970	1970

Americas

Country	Physician	Year graduated medical school	Year began practice
Argentina	Cecilia Grierson	1889	1889
Bermuda	Barbara Ball	1949	1949
Bolivia	Amelia Chopitea Villa	1926	1929
Brazil	Marie Durocher	1834	1834
Canada	Emily Stowe Canadian licenses granted 1880	1867 1875	1867 1875
	Jennie Kidd Trout	1875	1875
Chile	Eloísa Díaz	1886	1887
Colombia	Ana Galvis Hotz	1877	1877
Costa Rica	Anita Figueredo (lived in USA)
Cuba	Laura Martínez de Carvajal	1889	1889
Dominican Republic	Andrea Evangelina Rodríguez Perozo
Ecuador	Matilde Hidalgo	1921	1921
El Salvador	Estela Gavidia	1945	1945
Haiti	Yvonne Sylvain	1940	1940
Honduras	Lucila Gamero de Medina
Jamaica	Cicely Williams	1923	1923
Mexico	Matilde Montoya	1887	1887
Nicaragua	Concepción Palacios Herrera	1927	1928
Peru	Laura Esther Rodriguez Dulanto	1899	1900
Puerto Rico	María Elisa Rivera Díaz	1909	1909
	Ana Janer	1909	1909
United States	Elizabeth Blackwell	1849	1851
Uruguay	Paulina Luisi	1908	1909
Venezuela	Lya Imber	1936	1936

Asia

Country	Physician	Year graduated medical school	Year began practice
Afghanistan	Maghul M. Ali[8]	Late 1950s	Late 1950s
Azerbaijan	Sona Valikhan	1908	1908
Bahrain	Sadeeqa Ali Al-Awadi[9]
Bangladesh	Zohra Begum Kazi
Cyprus	Maria Michaelides	1927	1927
Hong Kong	Lai Po-cheun[10]
India	Anandi Gopal Joshi	1886	Never practiced
Indonesia	Marie E. Thomas[11]
Iran	Badri Teymourtash	1920s	1920s
Iraq			1922[12]
Israel	Bat Sheva Yonis-Guttman (first recorded)[13]		1909
Japan	Ogino Ginko	1882	1885
Korea	Jang-geum	16th century
Kuwait	Eleanor Calverley (born in USA)[14]	1908	1911
Lebanon	Edma Abouchdid	1931	1936
Malaysia	Salma Ismail[14]	1949	1949
Palestine	Alexandra Belkind (born in Russia)	1882
Philippines	Honoria Acosta-Sison	1909	1909
Russia	Nadezhda Suslova	1867	1868
Singapore	Lee Choo Neo	1919	1919
Syria	Tabat M. Islamboody[15]	1890	1890
Taiwan	Tsai Ah-hsin	1921	1925
Thailand	Pierra Vejjabul	1936	1936
Turkey	Safiye Ali		1922
Vietnam	Henriette Bùi Quang Chiêu	1934
Yemen		1990s[16]

Europe

Country	Physician	Year graduated medical school	Year began practice
Austria	Gabriele Possanner	1897	1897
Austria-Hungary	Sofiia Okunevska-Moraczewska	1894	1894
Belgium	Isala Van Diest	1879	1879
Bosnia and Herzegovina	Dr. Krajewska		c. 1897[17]
Bulgaria	Anastasia Golovina	1878	1878
Croatia	Karola Maier Milobar	1900	1906
Czech Republic	Anna Honzáková	1902	1902
Denmark	Nielsine Nielsen	1886	1889
England	Elizabeth Garrett Anderson	1862	1865
Estonia	Selma Feldbach	1904
Finland	Rosina Heikel	1878	1878
France	Madeleine Brès	1875	1875
Germany	Dorothea Erxleben	1754	1754
Greece (Athens)	Agnodice	4th Century BCE
Hungary	Vilma Hugonnai	1879	1897
Iceland		1917[18]
Ireland	Eleanora Fleury	1890	1890
Italy	Dorotea Bucca	pre-1390
Lithuania	Veronika Alseikaitė[19]	1908	1908
Malta	Blanche Huber[20]	1925	1925
Montenegro	Divna Veković	1940s
Netherlands	Aletta Jacobs	1879	1879
Norway	Marie Spångberg Holth	1893	1893
Poland	Anna Tomaszewicz-Dobrska	1877	1877
Portugal	Amélia dos Santos Costa Cardia	1891	1891
Romania	Maria Cuțarida-Crătunescu	1884	1891
Russia	Nadezhda Suslova	1867	1868
Scotland	Marion Gilchrist	1894	1894
Serbia	Draga Ljočić	1879	1881
Spain	Dolors Aleu i Riera	1879	1882
Sweden	Lovisa Åhrberg	Never educated; certified 1850s	1840
Switzerland	Marie Heim-Vögtlin	1874	1874
Ukraine	Sofiia Okunevska-Moraczewska	1894	1897
United Kingdom	Elizabeth Garrett Anderson	1862	1865
Wales	Frances Hoggan	1870	1870

Oceania

Country	Physician	Year graduated medical school	Year began practice
Australia	Constance Stone		1890
Fiji	Jiko Luveni	1967	1967
New Zealand	Emily Siedeberg	1896	1905
Tuvalu	Nese Ituaso[21]		1999
	Miliama Simeona[21]		1999

See also

• Women in medicine

References

1. Evans, Martin (2012-01-01). Algeria: France's Undeclared War. OUP Oxford. ISBN 9780192803504.
2. Greenwood, A.; Topiwala, H. (2016-01-12). Indian Doctors in Kenya, 1895-1940: The Forgotten History. Springer. ISBN 9781137440532.
3. "Mauritania’s Only Medical School Graduates Its First Class - Al-Fanar Media". Al-Fanar Media. 2015-08-18. Retrieved 2016-05-01.
4. Hayter-Menzies, Grant (2015-03-15). Lillian Carter: A Compassionate Life. McFarland. ISBN 9781476619330.
5. Mubarak, Khalid Al (2015-06-23). "Khalida Zahir obituary". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2016-05-01.
6. http://www.sudanjp.org/uploads/9/2/7/0/9270568/sjp_v12_2_sudanese_female_doctors_in_paediatrics.pdf
7. "Tanzania’s First Female Physician begins Medical School, Builds Alliances with U.S. Institutions". Duke Global Health Institute. Retrieved 2016-05-01.
8. Emadi, Hafizullah (2002-01-01). Repression, Resistance, and Women in Afghanistan. Greenwood Publishing Group. ISBN 9780275976712.
9. "First for Bahrain: Women in medicine". www.citizensforbahrain.com. Retrieved 2016-05-01.
10. "Dr. Lai Po-cheun, First Woman Medical Student at HKU". Hong Kong's First. Retrieved 2016-05-01.
11. Hesselink, Liesbeth (2011-01-01). Healers on the Colonial Market: Native Doctors and Midwives in the Dutch East Indies. BRILL. ISBN 9789004253575.
12. Kristof, Nicholas D. (2002-10-01). "Iraq's Little Secret". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2016-05-01.
13. http://in.bgu.ac.il/bgi/iyunim/DocLib1/gender_abstracts.pdf
14. Windsor, Laura Lynn (2002-01-01). Women in Medicine: An Encyclopedia. ABC-CLIO. ISBN 9781576073926.
15. Ewing, Rachel (2013-07-24). "From India, Japan and Syria, 19th Century Women Who Trekked to Philadelphia for Medical School". Drexel News Blog. Retrieved 2016-05-01.
16. Burns, John F. (2000-12-03). "Death, and Life, in a Medical School in Yemen". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2016-05-01.
17. North-western Christian Advocate. Swormstedt & Poe. 1897-01-01.
18. Karlsson, Gunnar (2000-01-01). The History of Iceland. U of Minnesota Press. ISBN 9780816635894.
19. "Belili: Marija Gimbutas Bio". www.belili.org. Retrieved 2016-05-01.
20. http://www.um.edu.mt/umms/mmj/PDF/463.pdf
21. AusAID. "Tuvalu’s first female doctors return home" (PDF). focus magazine June 2001 p. 21 (Vol.16 No.2). Archived (PDF) from the original on 2015-08-15. Retrieved 10 October 2015. List of pages