Early Women Members
I was working on a project where someone asked me who was the earliest female member of the Faculty. I didn’t immediately know, so went hunting up the answer. And in honor of the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment, I thought today was the perfect day to post it.
In 1882, the Faculty changed the by-laws to read “members” instead of “gentlemen.” At that time, women and African Americans were attending medical school and wanted to join their fellow physicians at the Medical & Chirurgical Faculty of Maryland.
Women were admitted to Johns Hopkins School of Medicine right from the beginning, because women had come up with the funding that was needed for the school to open, and that was the condition of the gift. The University of Maryland didn’t admit women until 1919, which was surprising to me. However, in 1882, the Women’s Medical College opened in Baltimore and continued to operate until about 1910.
