THE FIRST FEMALE PHARMACIST
March is Women’s History Month. At the University of
Charleston School of Pharmacy we want to mark this month by recognizing
and honoring the many women that have contributed to the success and
advancement of the pharmacy profession.
According to the American Pharmacists Association (APhA), Elizabeth
Gooking Greenleaf is recognized as the first female pharmacists in
America. She owned an apothecary shop in Boston in 1727. She was
married to Reverend Daniel Gooking, a Harvard graduate. He was a
minister, physician, and apothecary. Elizabeth was the mother of 12
children. It is believed she assisted her husband in the preparation of
medicines for his patients.
Susan Hayhurst was credited as the first female pharmacist in
the United States. After graduating from the Woman’s Medical College of
Philadelphia in 1857, Susan Hayhurst served on the College’s staff and
ran its pharmaceutical department for many years. In 1883, at the age of
63, Hayhurst became the first woman to graduate from the Philadelphia
College of Pharmacy.
Archives at Bowling Green State University share the story of another
notable female pharmacist, Ella Stewart (born in Stringtown, West
Virginia). Stewart wished to attend the University of Pittsburgh’s
School of Pharmacy but was met with discrimination when she was told
admissions were closed. She persisted however, and although segregated
from other students, she graduated with high marks passing her state
exam in 1916, to become the first licensed African-American female
pharmacist in Pennsylvania and one of the earliest practicing
African-American female pharmacists in the country.
Susan Hayhurst
THE FIRST FEMALE ENGINEER
Nora Stanton Blatch was the daughter of
Harriot Stanton Blatch and the granddaughter of
Elizabeth Cady Stanton, both of whom were leaders of the
women’s rights movement in the
United States. After her family relocated to
New York City, Blatch studied at
Cornell University
in Ithaca, New York, where in 1905 she became the first woman in the
United States to obtain a degree in civil engineering; the same year,
she became the first woman to be admitted as a member (with junior
status) of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). She worked
for the American Bridge Company in 1905–06 and for the New York City
Board of Water Supply. She also took courses in electricity and
mathematics at
Columbia University so that she could work as a laboratory assistant to
Lee De Forest, inventor of the radio
vacuum tube, whom she married in 1908. Blatch worked for her husband’s company in
New Jersey until 1909, when they were separated (they divorced in 1912).
After
returning to New York City, Blatch worked as an assistant engineer and
chief draftsman at the Radley Steel Construction Company (1909–12) and
for several years as an assistant engineer for the New York Public
Service Commission (from 1912). She began working part-time in 1914 as
an architect and developer on Long Island. In 1916 she gained notoriety
when she filed a lawsuit against the ASCE, which had terminated Blatch’s
membership when her age passed the limit for junior status; she failed
to win reinstatement through the court.
In addition to her work in
civil engineering, Blatch devoted her time to the
woman suffrage movement. While studying at Cornell she had founded a
suffrage
club, and from 1909 to 1917 she campaigned heavily for the cause in New
York. She became the president of the Women’s Political Union in 1915,
succeeding her mother, and edited the organization’s
Women’s Political World. She subsequently participated in the efforts of the
National Woman’s Party for a federal
Equal Rights Amendment.
Nora Stanton Blatch
THE FIRST FEMALE DOCTOR
Elizabeth Blackwell (3 February 1821 – 31 May 1910) was a
British-born physician, notable as the first woman to receive a medical
degree in the United States, as well as the first woman on the
UK Medical Register. She was the first woman to graduate from medical school, a pioneer in promoting the education of
women in medicine in the United States, and a social and moral reformer in both the United States and in the United Kingdom. Her sister
Emily was the third woman in the US to get a medical degree.
Elizabeth Blackwell
FIRST FEMALE LAWYER
Arabella Mansfield (May 23, 1846 – August 1, 1911), born
Belle Aurelia Babb, became the first female lawyer in the United States in 1869, admitted to the
Iowa
bar; she made her career as a college educator and administrator.
Despite an Iowa state law restricting the bar exam to males, Mansfield
had taken it and earned high scores. Shortly after her court challenge,
Iowa amended its licensing statute and became the first state to accept
women and minorities into its bar.
During her career, Mansfield worked primarily as an educator and activist, teaching at
Iowa Wesleyan College and
DePauw University. At the latter, she also became a university administrator, serving successively as dean in the 1890s of two different schools.
Arabella Mansfield
THE FIRST FEMALE PRIME MINISTER
Sirimavo Bandaranaike, who became the
world's first woman prime minister when she was elected head of Sri
Lanka's government four decades ago, retired from office today at the
age of 84.
Sirimavo Bandaranaike,
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