How Has the Number of Women Doctors Increased?

In the United States and other nations, the number of women entering the medical profession as general practitioners and specialists has increased dramatically. The number of women doctors in the U.S. has increased by 400 percent since 1981. In the United Kingdom, women doctors are projected to outnumber their male counterparts by the year 2017. Similar trends are found in other nations.

More facts about female doctors:

• Harriet Hunt is on record as the first woman to apply for admission into Harvard Medical School. Her application, submitted in 1847, was rejected. It was not until 1945 that Harvard finally admitted women into the medical school.


• Elizabeth Blackwell was the first woman to graduate from a U.S. medical school, completing her studies in 1849. In 1876, Sarah Hackett Stevenson was the first female medical doctor (M.D.) to be admitted to the American Medical Association (AMA). The AMA published the first Directory of Women Physicians in the United States in 1973.


• Nancy Nielsen, M.D., was elected as the first female vice-speaker in the American Medical Association’s House of Delegates in 2000. In 2003, Dr. Nielsen became the first female speaker in the House of Delegates.